What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 17, from Gazette & Herald

Gary Oldman in reflective mood in the dressing room as he returns to York Theatre Royal to perform Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, now into its week of press shows. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

YORK International Shakespeare Festival’s tenth anniversary programme is among Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations as April blossoms.

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979,  to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1987.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns and additional seats on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Katy Stephens’ White Witch and Aslan the lion in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

Touring show of the week: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7pm plus 2pm Thursday and Saturday matinees

STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun (Alfie Richards), Aslan, the Lion (Stanton Wright), and the coldest, cruellest White Witch (Katy Stephens). 

Directed by Michael Fentiman, this breathtaking stage adaptation brings magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets to CS Lewis’s allegorical novel. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Philipp Sommer: Delivering his riposte to Shakespeare’s hatchet job on Richard III in Re-Lording Richard 3.0

Festival of the week: York International Shakespeare Festival, until May 4

YORK International Shakespeare Festival is marking its tenth anniversary with a programme incorporating artists from the Netherlands for the first time; Croatia for Marin Drzic Day; Ukrainian artists from Ivano Frankisk and Bulgaria.

Among the highlights will be Berlin actor Philipp Sommer’s riposte to Shakespeare’s hatchet job on York’s own Richard III, Re-Lording Richard 3.0 (tomorrow); Olga Annenko’s Codename Othello (Friday); York company Hoglets Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Mischief with Team Titania and Team Oberon (Saturday); Stillington writer/actor/director Alexander Wright’s immersive, existential Hamlet Show (April 28 to 30); Ridiculusmus’s Alas! Poor Yorick (April 29) and the Shakespeare’s Speakeasy play in a day (May 2). For the full programme and tickets, head to: yorkshakes.co.uk.

George Young’s Henry VI in York Shakespeare Project’s Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3. Picture: John Saunders

Condensed play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, “I Am Myself Alone”, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

UNIVERSITY of California Santa Barbara theatre professor Irwin Appel, artistic director of Naked Shakes, directs York Shakespeare Project in his condensed, physical theatre version of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy.

A bare space, a crown and a throne meet an ensemble cast in a powerful show of “actor-generated theatricality and transformation”, wherein they tell a cautionary tale of power and greed that charts how a tyrant can rise in a torn and broken society. Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk or tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Pip Cook, left, Josie Morley and Keeley Lane in Badapple Theatre Company’s revival of Kate Bramley’s The Thankful Village, playing York Theatre Royal Studio from today

Wartime memorial of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in The Thankful Village, York Theatre Royal Studio, today to Saturday, 7pm plus 2.30pm matinees, today and Saturday

IN a new departure for Green Hammerton touring company Badapple Theatre, writer and artistic director Kate Bramley will be playing a live score for the first time to accompany her poignant First World War comedy-drama The Thankful Village.

A story of hope, humour and humanity is seen through the eyes of three Yorkshire women from the same rural household, below and above stairs. Left behind to cope after their men-folk march off to Flanders, Pip Cook’s Edie, Keeley Lane’s Victoria and Josie Morley’s Nellie each face up to the challenges in their own way as they wait anxiously for news of their loved ones far away. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Matt Goss: Tipping his hat to The Hits & More at York Barbican on Friday. Picture: Paul Harris

Pop concert of the week: Matt Goss, The Hits & More, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm

MATT Goss, the Bros pop pin-up-turned-Las Vegas showman, says: “Trust me, what I’ve learnt over the years being on countless stages around the world, this will be your best night of the year.”

Now living in central London after many years of blue skies in America, Goss, 56, will be celebrating all he has achieved in his music career and beyond in a rock’n’roll show, but still with a horn section (featured previously in the Matt Goss Experience show with the MG Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic at York Barbican in April 2023). Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, Clayton Jones, Dawn Bailey and Chris Brooker, Milton, Rooms, Malton, Friday. 8pm

HEADLINER Clayton Jones,  the 2017 Last Minute Comedy Comedian of the Year winner, covers everyday topics of marriage, children, being mixed race, school life and growing up in London in his observational comedy.

Newly turned 50, affable Dawn Bailey views life as a mum through happy specs and giddy knickers (in her own words). Host Chris Brooker combines infectious energy with original material and inspired improvisation. Box office:  01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Josienne Clarke: Performing the songs of Sandy Denny with full folk-rock band at Pocklington Arts Centre

Folk gig of the week: Across The Evening Sky: Josienne Clarke Sings The Songs Of Sandy Denny, Pocklington Arts Centre, Friday, 8pm

MELANCHOLIC  singer, songwriter and interpreter of traditional song Josienne Clarke leads a full folk-rock band – guitar, piano, bass and drums – in a new show dedicated to Sandy Denny, whose songs are her “north star – a constant guiding light”.

“If I can take one young fan of mine and introduce them to Sandy, in a context that they can grab hold of,” she says. “If they like my music, they will love Sandy. And that would be the whole concept sorted. To pass it on, so that these songs can go on forever.” Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

REVIEW: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday *****

Full steam ahead: The train journey scene in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

IF you did not head over to Leeds Playhouse between November 18 and January 25 for the most spectacular show of the Yorkshire Christmas season, then you can still venture into Narnia via the wardrobe as Michael Fentiman’s breathtaking production has further magical life, like Aslan, on a long tour.

The narrow Grand Opera House stage is smaller than the Playhouse’s cavernous Quarry Theatre, but much of the grand scale has been retained, except for Katy Stephens’ White Witch no longer rising high above the auditorium in the climax to Act One.

It matters not a jot as that scene still carries its own frightening, shivering beauty amid the flurry of snowflakes in a show replete with magic and illusions by Chris Fisher and wondrous puppetry, designed by Max Humphries and directed by Toby Olie. The wow factor keeps on rising.

Marking the 75th anniversary of C S Lewis’s 1950 novel, and based on the original production by Sally Cookson, this show finds the perfect balance of storytelling and spectacle, delivered by a cast of actor-musicians who are as likely to switch instrument as character as they perform Barnaby Race and Benji Bower’s score rooted in English folk music suffused with the energy of Irish jigs.

Set and costume design by Tom Paris, working from Rae Smith’s original design, are complemented by Jack Knowles’s stellar lighting design and Tom Marshall’s sound design that fills the Grand Opera House auditorium like no other show.

Katy Stephens’ White Witch comes face to face with her nemesis Aslan in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

Pre-show, a pianist in military attire and pith helmet plays favourite tunes of the wartime era, setting the scene for an enchanted story where the Pevensie children will become caught up in a very different battle in Narnia.

Yet the costumes for the Narnian creatures will remind you of the other war the children have left behind: from goggles for Ed Thorpe’s Mr Beaver, to an airman’s flying jacket for Alfie Richards’ Mr Tumnus and a gas mask for Shane Antony-Whiteley’s lupine Maugrin, who moves and fights on all fours with the aid of crutches that propel him around the stage in leaps and bounds.

Typified by Antony-Whiteley’s Maugrin, Shanelle ‘Tali’ Fergus’s choreography is as much physical theatre as ensemble dance and graceful poise for Stephens’ White Witch,  all played out on a revolving set that facilitates going into the wardrobe and out the other side into frozen, faraway Narnia, with its signature lamp post atop a piano.

Seen through the eyes of the Pevensie children, evacuated to the avuncular Professor’s Scottish lair, Lewis’s torrid, allegorical tale is told with a sense of wonder as Lucy (Molly Francis, understudying for Kudzai Mangombe), Edmund (Bunmi Osadolor), Susan (Joanna Adaran) and Peter (Jesse Dunbar) “meet new friends, face dangerous foes and learn the lessons of courage, sacrifice and the power of love”. All four deliver terrific performances, with bags of humour and pathos, and room for mistakes and rivalries on a rapid learning curve of empowerment.

Set-pieces deliver time after time, from the journey north on a train, whose individual carriages light up to musical accompaniment as they are carried above heads as the steam hisses, to Aslan miraculously vanishing from his, spoiler alert, resting place. The stage floor lights up to denote the crackling of ice; the huge puppet of Aslan, steered by puppeteers, will rise to his haunches, as impressive as Joey, the horse in War Horse.

The Pevensie children in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe: Edmund (Bunmi Osadolor), Peter (Jesse Dunbar), Susan (Joanna Adaran) and Lucy (Kudzai Mangombe)

All life is here in Fentiman’s company, from Richards’ deceitful but devastated faun Mr Tumnus to Stanton Wright’s embodiment of Aslan’s noble demeanour (standing alongside the roaring puppet); Thorpe and Anya De Villiers’  bickering Mr and Mrs Beaver to Kraig Thornber’s triple bill of roles as the Professor, Father Christmas and Wise Owl. And yes, a comment is made that this is not the season for Christmas!

Stephens brings all her Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe gravitas to the White Witch, putting the vile into evil that made you swear the Grand Opera House had suddenly turned colder on each entry.

Praise too for the work of fight director Jonathan Holby, musical director Ben Goddard and hair and make-up designer Susanna Peretz. If you see the show elsewhere,  that praise will extend to aerial director Gwen Hales.

In the words of director Michael Fentiman: “This production celebrates the magic of live theatre. It is a celebration of the possibilities of the collective imagination and the boundless wonders of individual skill.”

How right he is, and what a special, powerful. moving, beautiful production it is. Make sure to rush to the wardrobe: five-star theatre awaits.

The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday 7pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. Also Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, September 23 to 27, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees (box office, 01274 432000 or) and Hull New Theatre, September 30 to October 4, 7pm and 2pm Thursday and Saturday matinees (box office, hulltheatres.co.uk). Age guidance: six upwards.

More Things To Do in York, looking in great Shakes over the Easter holidays. Here’s Hutch’s List No.17, from The York Press

Gary Oldman in rehearsal for his return to York Theatre Royal in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, now heading into a week of press shows. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

YORK International Shakespeare Festival’s tenth anniversary programme is among Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations as April blossoms.

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979,  to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1987.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns and additional seats on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The Counterfeit Sixties: Swinging into Sixties’ recollections at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre tonight

Tribute show of the week: The Counterfeit Sixties Show, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm

THE Counterfeit Sixties pay tribute to 25 acts of the Swinging Sixties in a show encompassing everything from that golden pop age, from the clothes to flashbacks of television programmes, adverts and clips from the original bands.

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Dave Clark Five, The Kinks and The Monkees all feature in a hit parade performed by musicians who have worked with The Searchers, The Ivy League, The Fortunes and The Tremeloes. Tickets update: Limited availability on 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Some Enchanted Evening: Celebrating Rodgers and Hammerstein with the English Musical Theatre Orchestra at the Grand Opera House, York

Show tunes of the week: English Musical Theatre Orchestra presents Some Enchanted Evening, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

 EXPERIENCE the grandeur of Broadway as the English Musical Theatre Orchestra serenades you with show tunes from I Could Have Danced All Night ,People Will Say We’re In Love and You’ll Never Walk Alone to Getting To Know You and My Favourite Things.

Two star vocalists join the orchestra of 26 musicians, placing the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein centre-stage in renditions of songs from Oklahoma, The Sound Of Music, South Pacific and The King And I. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Full steam ahead: next stop Grand Opera House, York, for The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe on 2025 tour

Touring show of the week: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun (Alfie Richards), Aslan, the Lion (Stanton Wright), and the coldest, cruellest White Witch (Katy Stephens). 

Directed by Michael Fentiman, this breathtaking stage adaptation brings magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets to CS Lewis’s allegorical novel. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Philipp Sommer: Performing Re-Lording Richard 3.0 at York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium on April 24 at 7.30pm as part of York International Shakespeare Festival

Festival of the week: York International Shakespeare Festival, April 22 to May 4

YORK International Shakespeare Festival is marking its tenth anniversary with a programme incorporating artists from the Netherlands for the first time; Croatia for Marin Drzic Day; Ukrainian artists from Ivano Frankisk and Bulgaria.

Among the highlights will be Berlin actor Philipp Sommer’s riposte to Shakespeare’s hatchet job on York’s own Richard III, Re-Lording Richard 3.0 (April 24); Olga Annenko’s Codename Othello (April 25); York company Hoglets Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Mischief with Team Titania and Team Oberon (April 26); Stillington writer/actor/director Alexander Wright’s immersive, existential Hamlet Show (April 28 to 30); Ridiculusmus’s Alas! Poor Yorick (April 29) and the Shakespeare’s Speakeasy play in a day (May 2). For the full programme and tickets, head to: yorkshakes.co.uk.

York Shakespeare Project in rehearsal for Irwin Appel’s production of Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3 for York International Shakespeare Festival. Picture: John Saunders

Condensed play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, “I Am Myself Alone”, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 22 to 26, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

UNIVERSITY of California Santa Barbara theatre professor Irwin Appel, artistic director of Naked Shakes, directs York Shakespeare Project in his condensed, physical theatre version of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy.

A bare space, a crown and a throne meet an ensemble cast in a powerful show of “actor-generated theatricality and transformation”, wherein they tell a cautionary tale of power and greed that charts how a tyrant can rise in a torn and broken society. Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk or tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Matt Goss: Tipping his hat to The Hits & More at York Barbican next Friday. Picture: Paul Harris

Pop concert of the week: Matt Goss, The Hits & More, York Barbican, April 25, 8pm

MATT Goss, the Bros pop pin-up-turned- Las Vegas showman, says: “Trust me, what I’ve learnt over the years being on countless stages around the world, this will be your best night of the year.”

Now living in central London after many years of blue skies in America, Goss, 56, will be celebrating all he has achieved in his music career and beyond in a rock’n’roll show, but still with a horn section (featured previously in the Matt Goss Experience show with the MG Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic at York Barbican in April 2023). Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

In Focus: Badapple Theatre Company in The Thankful Village, York Theatre Royal Studio, April 24 to 26, 7pm and 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees

Pip Cook, left, Josie Morley and Keeley Lane in Badapple Theatre Company’s revival of Kate Bramley’s The Thankful Village, playing York Theatre Royal Studio next week

IN a new departure for Green Hammerton touring company Badapple Theatre, writer and artistic director Kate Bramley will be playing a live score for the first time to accompany her poignant First World War comedy-drama The Thankful Village.

Bramley is an international touring musician, who started her professional music career aged 17, with tours of the USA and UK, but this will be the first time that she has made a musical contribution to a show by her Green Hammerton company, specialists for 27 years in touring “theatre on your doorstep”.

Kate Bramley: Playing a live score in a Badapple Theatre Company production for the first time at York Theatre Royal Studio

“It has been our ambition since the play was created back in 2014 to have a live score accompanying the story,” says Kate. “Thanks to our collaboration with York Theatre Royal, I will appear with the stellar 2025 cast of Pip Cook, Keeley Lane and Josie Morley.

“I’m delighted to be performing at York Theatre Royal this spring. One performance is already sold out, so we’re looking forward to an exciting time at my favourite local theatre.”

Boasting original songs and music by Sony Radio Academy Award winner Jez Lowe, Bramley’s story of hope, humour and humanity is seen through the eyes of three Yorkshire women from the same rural household, below and above stairs.

Badapple Theatre Company in the rehearsal room for The Thankful Village

Left behind to cope after their men-folk march off to Flanders, Pip Cook’s Edie, Keeley Lane’s Victoria and Josie Morley’s Nellie each face up to the challenges in their own way as they wait anxiously for news of their loved ones far away. Box office:  01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Did you know?

“THE Thankful Villages” were those rare places that lost no men in the Great War because all those who left to serve came home again.

Badapple Theatre Company’s poster for The Thankful Village at York Theatre Royal Studio

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 16, from Gazette & Herald

Gary Oldman in rehearsal for Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, now in its preview week at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

GARY Oldman’s return to York Theatre Royal tops the bill of Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations and chocolate is in the air too.

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

ONCE the pantomime Cat that fainted thrice in Dick Whittington in his 1979 cub days on the professional circuit in York, Oscar winner Gary Oldman returns to the Theatre Royal to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1987.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: New availability of returns and additional seats on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Laura Soper’s Noi with the beached Storm Whale in The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio. Narrator Charlotte Benedict looks on. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography

Children’s show of the week: The Storm Whale, York Theatre Royal Studio, until Saturday, 10.30am and 1.30pm

YORK writer and director Matt Aston revives his 2019 stage adaptation of Benji Davies’s tales of loneliness, love and courage, The Storm Whale, in a show built on puppetry, original songs and dialogue.

Noi lives with his dad and six cats by the sea. One summer, while dad was busy at work, Noi rescued a little whale, washed up on the beach. A friendship began that changed their lives forever. The following winter, his dad takes one last trip in his fishing boat. Alone once more, Noi longs to see his friend again. Will it take another storm to bring them back together? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

York Chocolate Festival: City centre will be chock-a-block with chocs and eggs for Easter

Festival of the week: York Chocolate Festival 2025, today to Saturday, 10am to 5pm

YORK Chocolate Festival showcases everything sweet and chocolate from independent businesses in Parliament Street and around the city.

Highlights include the York Chocolate Festival Market; Chocolate Taste Trail; Ashley McCarthy’s Chocolate Sculpture and Family Easter Egg Hunt. Entry to the festival and market is free; some activities and events require tickets. Full programme at: yorkfoodfestival.com/programme.

Showaddywaddy: Rock’n’roll revivalists standing under the moon of love at The Grand Opera House, York

Rock’n’roll nostalgia of the week: Showaddywaddy, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

SHOWADDYWADDY make the bold claim to be “the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world”, living up to that title for the past five decades, they say.

Formed in 1973 in Leicester, they have sold more than 20 million records. Here come Hey Rock And Roll,  Under The Moon Of Love, Three Steps To Heaven, When, Blue Moon, Pretty Little Angel Eyes et al. Box office: atgtickjets.com/york.

Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman: Two voices, two guitars, original songs and carefully chosen covers at Pocklington Arts Centre

Duo of the week: Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow, 8pm

MARK Radcliffe and David Boardman are singing, songwriting, strumming and swigging buddies from Knutsford in the Badlands of the Cheshire Plain. BBC radio presenter and author Radcliffe was a member of folk-rock bands The Family Mahone and Galleon Blast and is now one half of electronic duo UNE and drummer and lyricist for Americana band Fine Lines.

Guitarist, guitar teacher and visual artist Boardman cut his teeth on the rock circuit with Darktown Jubilee. On board with Radcliffe, they deliver two voices, two guitars, original songs, carefully chosen covers and the occasional rambling anecdote. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Patrick Monahan: The Talkinator fights back against AI at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Comedy gig of the week: Patrick Monahan: The Talkinator, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday, 8pm

IN 2024, amid much talk of about AI taking over humans, only one man can out-talk the chat-bots and robots. Step forward Irish-Iranian comedian Patrick Monahan for one hour of stand-up comedy written by a human, performed by a human. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Alfie Richards’ Mr Tumnus in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

Touring show of the week: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun (Alfie Richards), Aslan, the Lion (Stanton Wright), and the coldest, cruellest White Witch (Katy Stephens). 

Directed by Michael Fentiman, this breathtaking stage adaptation brings magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets to CS Lewis’s allegorical novel. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Alex Hamilton: Playing the blues with his trio at Milton Rooms, Malton

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Alex Hamilton Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, April 24, 8pm

ALEX Hamilton (formerly Lewis Hamilton) has been part of the British blues rock scene for more than ten years, touring Great Britain and Europe. First making his mark as a young guitarist with skills beyond his age, he has matured and developed a technique redolent of Robben Ford and Matt Scofield.

Hamilton’s debut album aged 18 won the Scottish New Music Award in 2011 and his subsequent albums have been nominated for the British Blues Awards. He tours in a trio with his father Nick on bass and Ian Beestin on drums. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

In Focus: 1812 Theatre Company in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, Helmsley Arts Centre, April 23 to 26, 7.30pm

Jean Sheridan’s Miss Marple, left, and Jeanette Hambidge’s Cherry Baker in rehearsal for Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d. Picture: Joe Coughlan

HELMSLEY Arts Centre’s resident troupe, the 1812 Theatre Company, present Rachel Wagstaff’s stage adaptation of Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, a story of revenge and dark secrets set in late-summer 1962 England, when the wind of change blowing through the land reaches sleepy St Mary Mead.

A new housing estate, The Development, is making villagers fearful of changing times. Stranger still, a glamorous Hollywood movie star has bought the manor house, Gossington Hall, throwing the village into a frenzy.

Meanwhile, Miss Jane Marple (played by Jean Sheridan) has injured her ankle, a temporary impairment that confines her to a chair, making her question if life has passed her by. Enter Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Craddock (Richard Bannister), the son of a very dear friend of the spinster sleuth, after the vicious murder of a woman, poisoned at a party held by film star Marina Gregg (Lucy Wilshaw). Now Miss Marple must unravel a web of lies, tragedy and danger.

All the party guests are suspect; as ever, everyone’s version of events is different. Who would have guessed that a famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson would provide the key to the mystery?

Wagstaff’s play is an adaptation of Christie’s 1962 novel The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side, first toured in 2019 with a cast led by Susie Blake as Miss Marple and Simon Shepherd as Chief Inspector Craddock. Blake reprised the role on tour at York Theatre Royal in October 2022.

Lucy Wilshaw rehearsing her role as American film star Marina Gregg. Picture: Joe Coughlan

“The title of the novel, and the shortened version for the play, is taken from the moment when the mirror of ‘The Lady of Shalott’ (from the Tennyson poem) cracks and the curse she’d feared now befalls her,” says director Julie Lomas.

“The novel’s plot was undoubtedly inspired by Agatha Christie’s reflections on a mother’s feelings for a child born with disabilities, and it is thought that she was influenced by happenings in the life of beautiful real-life actress Gene Eliza Tierney.

“There are several themes running through the novel, and the play, covering some of the changes in social history since the Second World War, including the class structure, racism and ageism.”

The novel was made into a film in 1980, with a multitude of star names, includimg Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, Elizabeth Taylor as Marina Gregg and Edward Fox as Chief Inspector Craddock.

All the Miss Marple’novels were adapted for a BBC TV series shown in the 1990s, starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple.

For tickets, ring 01439 771700 or book at helmsleyarts.co.uk.  

Who’s in the cast?

Becca Magson’s Lola Brewster and Richard Bannister’s Chief Inspector Craddock in the rehearsal room. Picture: Joe Coughlan

THE Mirror Crack’d was scheduled to be staged by 1812 Theatre Company in 2024, but that old enemy Covid intervened. After a few cast changes under new director Julie Lomas, the production is ready for next week’s run.

Miss Jane Marple: Jean Sheridan

Marina Gregg: Lucy Wilshaw

Cherry Baker: Jeanette Hambidge

Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock: Richard Bannister

Heather Leigh: Michele Hopley

Cyril Leigh: Steven Lonsdale

Jason Rudd: Beaj Johnson

Giuseppe Renzo: Barry Whitaker

Dolly Bantry: Lynn Goslin

Ella Zielinski: Linda Tester

Lola Brewster: Becca Magson

Who’s in the production team?

Jean Sheridan’s Miss Marple, left, and Lynn Goslin’s Dolly Bantry on the phone in rehearsal for 1812 Theatre Company’s production. Picture: Joe Coughlan

Director: Julie Lomas

Production assistant: Julie Wilson

Stage manager/properties: Anna Hare; Marcie Hughes

Technical director: James Bentley

Set design: Julie Lomas; Sue Elm

Set construction: Michael Goslin; Peter Ives; Russell Smith

Set painting: Pauline Noakes; Heather Linley; Denise Kitchin; Liz Ives; John Lomas

Sound design: Julie Lomas; John Lomas

Lighting design: Julie Lomas

1812 Theatre Company’s poster for next week’s production of Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d

The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe heads for Grand Opera House, York, on 75th anniversary of C S Lewis’s novel

Edmund (Bunmi Osadolor), Peter (Jesse Dunbar) Lucy (Kudzai Mangombe) and Susan (Joanna Adaran) in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, and Hull New Theatre

MICHAEL Fentiman’s breathtaking production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe visits the Grand Opera House, York, from April 22 to 26 on the tour marking the 75th anniversary of C S Lewis’s novel. 

Step through the wardrobe into the enchanted kingdom of Narnia where a world of wonder awaits.  Join the Pevensie children, Lucy (Kudzai Mangombe), Edmund (Bunmi Osadolor), Susan (Joanna Adaran) and Peter (Jesse Dunbar) as they meet new friends, face dangerous foes and learn the lessons of courage, sacrifice and the power of love. 

Waving goodbye to wartime Britain, the children embark on the most magical of adventures in the frozen, faraway land, where they encounter Mr Tumnus, the faun (Alfie Richards), talking beavers, Aslan, the noble king of Narnia (Stanton Wright) and the coldest, most evil White Witch (Katy Stephens).

Stephens has played leading roles at Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she is an associate artist. She was part of the team that won the Olivier Award for Best Ensemble Performance for the RSC’s Histories Cycle, in which her roles included Joan of Arc and Margaret of Anjou.  

Katy Stephens’s White Witch in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

“I’m thrilled to bring this show to life for audiences,” says Katy, who also plays Mrs Macready in Fentiman’s  production. “They won’t believe their eyes and ears! For two and a half hours, they’ll be completely transported. It’s the perfect way to spend an afternoon or evening – a show that will captivate both adults and children alike.

“The level of talent on stage is incredible. I’ve been in awe of the stunning musicianship, beautiful dancing, and powerful performances. I’ve laughed, I’ve been moved, and I feel so privileged to be part of this production.

“I know the audience will feel the same way. Above all, it’s a beautiful, powerful, and truly magical show – the warmest, most enchanting spectacle you could imagine.”

The cast also features  Archie Combe as Mr Pope and Foxtrot; Andrew Davison as Mr Wilson Schroedinger, Jack Rabbit, Aslan Puppeteer and Head Cruel; Anya de Villiers as Mrs Beaver; Molly Francis, as Mrs Pevensie, Aslan Puppeteer and Robin; Ruby Greenwood (on-stage Swing); Ffion Haf as Miss Gumley-Warmley and Phoenix) and Rhiannon Hopkins as Miss Chutney and Blue Badger.

Alfie Richards’ Mr Tumnus in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe

Alfie Richards has further roles as White Mouse and Badger; Joe Keenan plays Mr Granville, Spirit of the Moon and Red Squirrel; Ruby Greenwood,  Oliver Magor, J B Maya and Luca Moscardini, on-stage Swings;  Kraig Thornber, The Professor, Father Christmas and Wise Owl; Ed Thorpe, Mr Beaver;  Rhodri Watkins,  Mr Brinkworth, March Hare and Aslan Puppeteer;  and Shane Anthony Whiteley, Maugrim, Satyr and White Stag.

Fentiman, whose direction is based on the original production by Sally Cookson, is joined in the production team by set and costume designer Tom Paris; composers Barnaby Race and Benji Bower; choreographer Shannelle ‘Tali’ Fergus; lighting designer Jack Knowles and sound designer Tom Marshall.

In the team too are original puppetry director Toby Olié; original puppetry designer Max Humphries; aerial director Gwen Hales; fight director Jonathan Holby; Illusionist Chris Fisher; musical director Ben Goddard and hair and make-up designer Susanna Peretz.

Fentiman says: “I’m delighted to be taking our beautiful production of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe on a major tour of the UK and Ireland in 2025. The production celebrates the magic of live theatre and is led by a multi-talented cast of actors, singers, musicians, dancers and puppeteers; it is a celebration of the possibilities of the collective imagination and the boundless wonders of individual skill.”

Producer Chris Harper says: “We can’t wait for children and adults alike to join us on this spectacular new journey through the wardrobe, and are proud to be marking the 75th anniversary of the publication of CS Lewis’s novel with this tour.”

Lewis’s book was first published in October 1950, since when more than 85 million copies in 60 languages have been sold, making it one of the top ten best-selling books of all time. The stage adaptation enjoyed a London run in 2022-2023 and is now on a nationwide tour after a Christmas season at Leeds Playhouse, where it was first produced.

The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Further Yorkshire runs will follow at Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, September 23 to 27, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees (box office, 01274 432000 or) and Hull New Theatre, September 30 to October 4, 7pm and 2pm Thursday and Saturday matinees (box office, hulltheatres.co.uk). Age guidance: six upwards.

REVIEW: Harrogate Theatre’s 125th birthday party & Beauty And The Beast *****

Harry Wyatt’s Madame Bellie Fillop, Michael Lambourne’s Baron Bon Bon, Tim Stedman’s Philippe Fillop and Anna Campkin’s Belle in Harrogate Theatre’s Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Karl Andre

HARROGATE Theatre – or the Grand Opera House as it was first called – opened on January 13 1900, squeezing a capacity of 1,300 into Frank Tugwell’s design.

On Wednesday night, Harrogate Theatre marked its 125th anniversary with the launch of a fundraising campaign for the symmetrical sum of £125,000 – although £1.25 million would surely be more welcome – at the 7pm pantomime performance of Beauty And The Beast, played to a capacity of 500.

 “Everything is smaller now,” noted chief executive David Bown. Smaller-scale shows prevail; Victorian melodramas a thing of the past, like the theatre’s ghost, Alice. The days of 40 repertory shows a year are long gone too. Casts are down-sized. Even the theatre name is shorter!

Most significantly, Bown mentioned the post-Covid cut in funding, necessitating the year of “fab and fun” fundraising events, introduced in the new season’s brochure distributed to mayoral party and panto punters alike in the 125th anniversary party bags.

Nothing surely will be more “fab and fun” than Beauty And The Beast, a riotous French fancy of a pantomime enjoyed for a second time this season by CharlesHutchPress, who was left wondering why other theatres have closed their winter big earners already, one as early as December 28.

Written by David Bown, from an original idea by his late writing partner Phil Lowe, with additional material by Michael Lambourne, Marcus Romer and Tim Stedman, Beauty And The Beast is directed by Romer (who has programmed the 125th anniversary season too).

Once the pioneering force behind Pilot Theatre at York Theatre Royal and beyond, Romer brings a playful energy, zest for spectacle, awareness of the power of a knockout pop song old or new, a passion for storytelling and  relish for high-tech panache to an outstanding show that still has five performances to go, as full of Parisian chic as Yorkshire humour.

He has a cracking production team too: from Morgan Brind’s vibrant set and costume designs, especially for Harry Wyatt’s flamboyant dame, Madame Bellie Fillop, to Charlie Brown’s superb sound; from Nick Lacey’s arrangements, all snap, crackle and pop, in his 21st year as musical director, to Alexandra Stafford’s lighting design, at its best in Stedman and Lambourne’s ultraviolet-lit Highway To Hell scream of a motorcycle ride. To top it all, David Kar-Hing Lee’s choreography hits the groove throughout.

From Stedman’s filmed opening in airman’s goggles to Romer’s trademark closing film credits, Beauty And The Beast combines Romer tropes with his canny appreciation of the long-established cornerstones of a Harrogate Theatre pantomime.

Stedman is in his 24th season as the helium-voiced, strawberry-cheeked, idiot-savant buffoon, as vital to the show’s flow and comic spark as Billy Pearce at Bradford Alhambra, and here the subject of an affectionate pre-show dig by Bown about his seemingly ageless programme headshot. He is as delightfully daft as ever as Philippe Fillop, and even the rest of the cast stands in admiration to applaud his piece de resistance: a Catherine wheel blur of sound and vision as he reprises what’s happened in the show so far.

Glory be, however, Stedman is not alone in warranting such applause. Romer has all his cast in superb form. Assistant director Lambourne, he of the booming voice and Edwardian beard, has switched from last year’s dark side to be the grandest of grand actors, even sending up himself for “understatement” as the thoroughly thespian cafe owner Baron Bon Bon. Make that tres bon. Harrogate is growing to love him as much as York Theatre Royal audiences did down the years.

After more than ten years as Sheringham Little Theatre’s dame, Harry Wyatt headed north to play Sarah the Cook in Dick Whittingham last winter and he is even more of a Wyatt riot here as another cook, Madame Bellie Fillop, so at ease in costume and comedy alike, and packing a vocal punch in his songs. He is indeed an eyeful in his Eiffel Tower attire.

Colin Kiyani’s Beast/Prince and Anna Campkin’s Belle are proper romantic leads; no song has more impact than Kiss From A Rose, sung so beautifully that it would surely have received a Seal of approval, justifying Romer’s long-held wish to use the vertiginous ballad in a stage show.

The Beast’s 360-degree rotating transformation scene – flying effects courtesy of Flying By Foy – is a spectacular denouement too; the scene truly moving as Romer gives due weight to the drama at the heart of this torrid fairytale.  

Romer’s six-pack of stellar performances – backed up by an ensemble of dancers – is completed by another actress with “previous” with him: Joanne Sandi, whose Mona Lisa, the Sorceress and Parisian fashion designer, gives off vibes of Wicked and Beyonce too, albeit with a Texan swagger, outwardly incongruous and yet it works!  Her rendition of Freedom, off Beyonce’s Lemonade, makes you go Wow.

Alongside Leeds Playhouse’s fabulous The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, this monster hit is the five-star show of CharlesHutchPress’s winter tour of the north. Make a note in your diary: Bown and Romer will be defying size confines once more next winter in Jack And The Beanstalk, wherein  big, magical things grow from small.  How apt!

Beauty And The Beast, Harrogate Theatre, 7pm tonight; 12 noon and 5pm, Saturday and Sunday. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

More Things To Do in York and beyond in 2025 Part Two when the ice age cometh. Hutch’s List No. 2 from The York Press

Taboo-shattering comedy: Ed Byrne in Tragedy Plus Time at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Roslyn Grant

FROM Narnia to ice sculptures, comedy in wolf’s clothing to Ayckbourn’s 91st play, Charles Hutchinson finds plenty to perk up the days and nights ahead.

Taboo subject of the week: Ed Byrne: Tragedy Plus Time, Grand Opera House, tonight, 7.30pm

MARK Twain, the 19th century American writer, humorist, and essayist, defined humour as Tragedy Plus Time. Irish comedian Ed Byrne tests that formula by mining the most tragic event in his life – the death of his brother Paul from Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 44 – for laughs.

Byrne’s show carries the content warning “Discussions of death”.  “But as with any subject I do, there are always digressions into asides,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Mark Reynolds’ illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, on tour at York Theatre Royal for five nights

Comedy and not comedy: Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm; The Shed presents Indeterminacy with Tania Caroline Chen, piano, Steve Beresford, piano and objects, and Stewart Lee, voice, National Centre for Early Music, York, February 1, 3.30pm

IN Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares the stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the “culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”: can the beast inside us all be silenced by  the silver bullet of Lee’s deadpan stand-up? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

On John Cage and David Tudor’s 1959 double LP Indeterminacy, Cage read 90 of his stories, each one, whether long or short, lasting precisely one minute. Unheard by Cage, Tudor simultaneously played the piano and other things in another room. Now Stewart Lee joins pianists Tania Caroline Chen and Steve Beresford to do their own version of Cage’s work in a 40-minute performance in one room, where the musicians do their best not to hear Lee’s reading. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

York Ice Trail 2025: Taking the theme of Origins on February 1 and 2

After this week’s deep freeze, here comes York Ice Trail 2025, February 1 and 2

YORK’S “free weekend of frosty fun” returns with a 2025 theme of Origins as York’s streets are turned into an icy wonderland of frozen tableau in this annual event run by Make It York. Among the 30 ice sculptures showcasing 2,000 years of city history will be a Roman shield, a Viking helmet, a chocolate bar,  a drifting ghost, a majestic train and a Yorkshire rose, all captured in the language of ice by Icebox. Full details can be found at visityork.org/york-ice-trail.

The book cover for Elizabeth Sharkey’s Why Britain Rocked: Under discussion with musician and environmental campaigner husband Feargal at Pocklington Arts Centre

One-off interview comes into view:  Why Britain Rocked: Elizabeth and Feargal Sharkey, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 13, 7.30pm.

FEARGAL Sharkey, former frontman of The Undertones, will interview his wife, author Elizabeth Sharkey, on one night only of her debut book tour: the final show, which just happens to be in Pocklington.

Together they will explore the history of British pop music, as charted in Why Britain Rocked: How Rock Became Roll And Took Over The World, wherein Elizabeth re-writes the established history by uncovering the untold stories behind Britain’s musical evolution and challenges the American claim to have invented rock’n’roll. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The Corrs: Kicking off the 2025 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre

Off to the East Coast this summer: Scarborough Open Air Theatre season

IRISH siblings The Corrs lead off Cuffe & Taylor’s 2025 season in Scarborough with support from Natalie Imbruglia  on June 11. In the diary too are Gary Barlow, June 13; Shed Seven with special guests Jake Bugg and Cast, June 14; Pendulum, June 15; Basement Jaxx, June 21, and The Human League, plus Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, June 28.

July opens with The Script and special guest Tom Walker on July 5; UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, with special guest Bitty McLean, July 6; Blossoms, with Inhaler and Apollo Junction, July 10; Rag’n’Bone Man, with Elles Bailey, July 11; McFly, with Twin Atlantic and Devon, July 12; Judas Priest, with Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, July 23, and Texas, with Rianne Downey, July 26. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) and Joanna Adaran (Susan) in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

Touring show of the year: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun, Aslan, the Lion, and the coldest, cruellest White Witch. 

Running at Leeds Playhouse until January 25 in the most spectacular production of the winter season, this breathtaking stage adaptation of CS Lewis’s allegorical novel then heads out on a new tour with its magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Alan Ayckbourn: Directing his 91st play, Earth Angel, at the SJT, Scarborough, in the autumn. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Alan Ayckbourn’s 91st play: Earth Angel, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, September 13 to October 11

 STEPHEN Joseph Theatre director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn directs his 91st play, Earth Angel, wherein Gerald has lost his wife of many years. Amy was the light of his life, almost heaven sent. It is tricky thinking about life without her but he is trying his best to put a brave face on things, accepting help from fussy neighbours and muddling along as best he can.

Then a mysterious stranger turns up at Amy’s wake. He seems like a nice enough chap, washing the dishes and offering to do a shop for Gerald, but is he all that he appears? Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

In focus: The Waterboys’ new album and tour dates at York Barbican, May 15; Sheffield City Hall, May 9, and Leeds O2 Academy, June 17

Mike Scott: Leading The Waterboys at York Barbican for the eighth time on May 15. Picture: Paul MacManus

THE Waterboys will showcase “the most audacious album yet” of Mike Scott’s 42-year career, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, on their latest return to York Barbican, having previously played their “Big Music” brand of folk, rock, soul and blues there in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.

Released on April 4 on Sun Records, their 16th studio album charts the epic path of the trailblazing American actor and rebel, as told through a song cycle that depicts not only Hopper’s story but also the saga of the last 75 years of western pop culture. 

“The arc of his life was the story of our times,” says Scott, “He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol. 

“He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights and psychedelic scenes of the ’60s. In the ’70s and ’80s he went on a wild ten-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”

As a first taste of what lies in store, Hopper’s On Top (Genius) was unveiled on streaming and video this week, capturing the electric, heady moment when Hopper’s Easy Rider became a cultural phenomenon and cemented his place in Hollywood history. Buoyed by Scott’s searing vocals, vibrant instrumentation and a psychedelic edge, the song channels the euphoria and hubris of the 1960s’ counterculture that Hopper epitomised.  

Scott worked for four years on Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Produced with Waterboys bandmates Famous James and Brother Paul, the album spans 25 tracks that trace the trace the extraordinary ups and downs of Hopper’s life, from his youth in Kansas to his long rise, five wives, tumultuous fall and ultimate redemption.

The album cover artwork for The Waterboys’ Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, set for release on April 4

Every song has its own special place and fascinating, deep-rooted story. “It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth,” says Scott.

The album will be The Waterboys’ first for Sun Records. “Hey, we’re label mates with Howlin’ Wolf and young Elvis,”says Scott,  who is joined by a stellar line-up of guests, ranging from Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple and Steve Earle to Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and punk arch-priestess Patti Palladin.

The 31-date UK and Ireland tour will run from May 1 to June 19.  Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Leeds, academymusicgroup.com.

Life, Death And Dennis Hopper track listing:

1.   Kansas (featuring Steve Earle)
2.   Hollywood ’55
3.   Live In The Moment, Baby
4.   Brooke/1712 North Crescent Heights
5.   Andy (A Guy Like You)
6.   The Tourist (featuring Barny Fletcher)
7.   Freaks On Wheels
8.   Blues For Terry Southern
9.   Memories Of Monterey
10. Riding Down To Mardi Gras
11. Hopper’s On Top (Genius)
12. Transcendental Peruvian Blues
13. Michelle (Always Stay)
14. Freakout At The Mud Palace
15. Daria
16. Ten Years Gone (featuring Bruce Springsteen)
17. Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (featuring Fiona Apple)
18. Rock Bottom
19. I Don’t Know How I Made It (featuring Taylor Goldsmith)
20. Frank (Let’s F**k)
21. Katherine (featuring Anana Kaye)
22. Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper
23. Golf, They Say
24. Venice, California (Victoria)/The Passing Of Hopper
25. Aftermath

It may be warm outside for this time of year, but the White Witch has turned Castle Howard to ice for Christmas In Narnia

On the home straight: Christmas In Narnia at Castle Howard, All pictures: Charlotte Graham

THE last chance to experience Christmas In Narnia fast approaches at Castle Howard, near York, where magical furniture and storybook scenes have been installed this winter.

Inspired by C S Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, the North Yorkshire country house invites visitors to step through the wardrobe door to explore a world of festive adventure in a dazzling interpretation of the places familiar to Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. 

“For our displays, visitors don’t just step into the world of Narnia, they retrace the steps of the Pevensie children from their familiar surroundings at the home of Professor Digory Kirke into the world of perpetual winter ruled over by the White Witch,” says Charlotte Lloyd Webber, who has returned to Castle Howard for a fourth year to orchestrate the displays that run through through the John Vanbrugh-designed house. 

“Taking our explorers through the bedrooms of the children gives a hint of the character traits that become amplified in the magical world, before we step out of the wardrobe into the frozen lands.”

A soundscape by Karen Monid accompanies the trip around the house, evoking both the 1940s and the magical world to add an extra dimension and atmosphere to the visit.

Once back on the China Landing, the imposing door of the mirrored wardrobe awaits: the traditional entry point to Narnia. Stepping through a tunnel of fur coats, once through the wardrobe, visitors will discover that icy fingers of frost have touched every part of the path with a blizzard of white.

Stepping through the wardrobe door…

In the distance, the lamp-post marker surrounded by Mr Tumnus’s abandoned presents beckons visitors into a frozen world, where the White Witch’s enemies have been turned to stone. The Antique Passage is filled with frozen animals, twigs and icicles.

The Great Hall is usually the warm heart of the Castle Howard Christmas displays, but not this time. Under the White Witch’s icy gaze, the evergreen tree – standing at 28ft, making it probably the largest real indoor decorated tree in the country – has been caught in a snowstorm.

Every branch is covered with snow and thousands of icicles, together with a constellation of tiny, glistening white lights.  Placed centrally beneath the dome, it is as though the spruce tree has grown out of the floor.

Stepping from the Great Hall into the Garden Hall, visitors enter the epicentre of the self-proclaimed Queen of Narnia’s domain, and there they find the White Witch, larger than life, frozen in time and covered in hundreds of icicles, on board her sleigh.  Projections and sounds bring the scene to life and continue into the White Witch’s palace. 

An icy passageway through the Cabinet rooms leads out of the land of snow, whereupon visitors return to the warmest and most comfortable place in all Narnia: Mr Tumnus’s house. The snow has started to melt and elements of the forest have taken refuge, winter evergreens growing over the fireplace, with its roaring blaze, and real trees creating a sylvan atmosphere.

The re-emergence of Christmas comes with the Fox’s dining room, set out for a magnificent feast with his woodland friends beneath an arbour dressed in glittering red to create a canopy above the table. 

An icy passageway at Castle Howard

Celebrations continue next door with the colours of the ocean in the Turquoise Dining Room, providing a backdrop for Narnia’s mermaids, singing at the coronation of the Pevensie children.

Onwards to the Long Gallery, where visitors will marvel as they mark the return of Aslan – and Father Christmas – to the magical kingdom. Stepping through another wardrobe door, they encounter suspended rainbow wooden Christmas trees and dancing lights en route to the Octagon, where the four thrones of the Pensive Kings and Queens await.

Located directly above the four thrones is a new feature for this winter, bringing the Octagon ceiling into play through the magic of projection, courtesy of digital-mapping pioneer Ross Ashton and Karen Monid, the team behind the Northern Lights light and sound installation at York Minster in June 2018 and October 2019.

The ceiling appears to open to reveal a starry sky above with an animation that evokes the very essence of Christmas. 

Narnia would not be the complete without its noble lion. A giant model of Aslan, fashioned from pages from the CS Lewis novels painted gold, oversees the Long Gallery, surrounded by sculptures of other woodland animals.

The visit concludes in the Castle Howard Chapel, where a Nativity scene has been laid out by the main altar, and where Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s donation tree stands, dressed with wooden ornaments decorated by children from Slingsby Primary School.

Bretta Gerecke stands by the Great Hall’s 28ft spruce tree, “caught in the White Witch’s snowstorm, every branch covered with snow and thousands of icicles and a constellation of tiny white lights”

“We are incredibly proud of this winter’s displays and very grateful to our friends at Harper Collins for permitting us to tell the Narnia story in Castle Howard’s unique way,” says the Hon Nicholas Howard, guardian of Castle Howard. 

“The displays look marvellous at any time of the day, but I am particularly fond of the late afternoon and evening, as the light fades outside, making the glow of all the lights and candles inside the house seem just that little brighter.  Even when you step back outside of the house into the winter evening, the avenue of illuminated trees running the length of the drive looks picture perfect.”

To reduce crowding, fewer people have been allocated a place per time slot, prompting the Castle Howard team to open the house until later on Saturdays throughout the run and Friday evenings in December.

“In previous years, we’ve hosted twilight visits on occasional evenings as we moved closer to the festive season, but this year, we’re adding soundscapes and projections that look particularly spectacular as the daylight fades,” says Abbigail Ollive, head of marketing. 

Christmas In Narnia at Castle Howard is the work of the returning Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Bretta Gerecke and their team of specialist designers, lighting experts and even a “baublographer”, whose task was to instal dozens of trees, thousands of baubles and tens of thousands of fairy lights for the displays. 

“When it came to planning this year’s installation, the Howard family were very keen that it should go back indoors and Narnia was a great idea. Nick [Nicholas Howard] used to work in publishing and had a very good relationship with the C S Lewis estate,” says Charlotte.

“It absolutely makes sense to do a story theme in a house like this, which was designed by a dramatist,” says Charlotte Lloyd Webber

“Victoria [Howard] had always been resistant to stories previously, but now, after seeing Christmas In Narnia, she’s saying, ‘OK, what’s next?’!

“It absolutely makes sense to do a story theme in a house like this, which was designed by a dramatist [Vanbrugh].”

Bretta agrees. “The rooms in this house feel episodic, suiting story scenes, and the apotheosis is how the Long Gallery is set out.”

Going back to the original books for inspiration for these displays has been a “fantastic” experience for Charlotte’s team. “C S Lewis writes with such colour and attention to detail, and yet it has given us scope to put our own individual interpretation on this magical world to weave familiar parts of Castle Howard into the story,” she says.

Charlotte finds resonance in 1940s’ wartime experiences being echoed by the pandemic’s lockdowns and restrictions of 2020 and 2021. “What struck us was the poignancy of the four children going through the worst disaster of the 20th century, the Second World War, and now we’re going through the worst disaster of the 21st century so far.

“What we wanted to do was emphasise the sense of stepping out of what’s happening in the world now, to step through the wardrobe door into the magical world of Narnia.”

The Octagon ceiling “opens to let in the universe”

Ross Ashton talks of a prevailing feeling of doom and existential crisis being lifted by experiencing Christmas In Narnia, before Bretta adds: “That’s what makes the pay-off in the Long Gallery so rewarding. That sense of hope. That final room is joyful and hopeful, but you have to have some tragedy first to have that release of potential joy.”

The Christmas displays at Castle Howard always take the form of a journey, but this year the experience has expanded to become multi-sensory, heightened by Ross Ashton’s projection and Karen Monid’s soundscape. “One of the things about the sense of sound is that it happens in real time and you have to be constantly alive to that, to let it reveal itself, as we can only take in things in real time too,” she says.

“It is the sound that envelops you, goes all around you, giving a voice to the room and the design, and because we’re telling a story in each room, the sound has to respond to that. I had to make a decision, room by room, as to what the important sounds should be.”

Rather than arriving with a fixed soundtrack for the 38 rooms, Karen had to consider the acoustics of each room, “rooms that could ring like bells,” she says. “When it came to choosing the sound of the wind, I went for a low-pitched variation, so it could travel down the passageways without having to turn the volume up.

“The Garden Room and the Great Hall have the same wind sound too; the idea is that it should keep pulling you onwards. That’s why I’ve tuned the winds all in the same key.”

Every detail is planned carefully. “There are curated tracks in the rooms, such as for the Mermaids’ music, which I put together with no bass in it because I wanted to take that weight out of the sound, so you feel lifted,” says Karen.

Aslan, the lion, made from paper from the C S Lewis books

When Karen and Ross work in tandem on a project, the sound always comes first, and then Ross plays his creative hand. “It’s the end result you’re interested in,” he says. “You react to the space; Castle Howard has a theatrical design and this space is a gift. Here it’s a half dome, an octagon, and in the room, there’s all this amazing décor to wonder at.

“It’s an unusual space; you look at it to see how it inspires you and I think it has an Arabic feel to it, with that Eastern flavour being different to Narnia – and of course Aslan is the Turkish word for ‘lion’.”

Ashton’s constantly moving animated projection design “opens the roof to reveal the universe to give a spectacular ending to the trail”. “You see Aslan, and of course the lion is the emblem of Castle Howard, and you see Father Christmas too, who turns up at the end of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe,” he says.

How can Charlotte and her team trump Christmas In Narnia? “That’s what we try to do each year…but it’s not a competition!” she says. “Next year we’ll find something totally different for a theme, maybe a fairytale, but definitely totally different.”

Christmas In Narnia runs at Castle Howard until January 3. All time slots are sold out, but any returns automatically will become available to book via castlehowardchristmas.seetickets.com/timeslot/christmas-in-narnia. Tickets include timed access to the house, with full access to the gardens and adventure playground.