Shed Seven: Playing sold-out concerts in York Museum Gardens on Friday and Saturday
SHED Seven’s 30th anniversary open-air concerts are the headline act on Charles Hutchinson’s arts and culture bill for the week ahead. Look out for global travels, Gershwin celebrations and a Hitchcockian comic caper too.
York festival of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Jack Savoretti, tomorrow; Shed Seven, Friday and Saturday
ANGLO-ITALIAN singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti opens the inaugural Live At York Museum Gardens festival at the 4,000-capacity gardens tomorrow, when the support acts will be Northern Irish folk-blues troubadour Foy Vance, York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich and fast-rising Halifax act Ellur.
Both of Shed Seven’s home-city 30th anniversary gigs have sold out. Expect a different set list each night, special guests and a school choir, plus support slots for The Libertines’ Peter Doherty, The Lottery Winners and York band Serotones on Friday and Doherty, Brooke Combe and Apollo Junction on Saturday. Sugababes’ festival-closing concert on July 21 was cancelled in April. Box office: seetickets.com/event/jack-savoretti/york-museum-gardens/2929799.
Claire Martin: Celebrating Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue at Ryedale Festival. Picture: Kenny McCracken
Jazz gig of the week: Ryedale Festival, Claire Martin and Friends, Rhapsody In Blue – A Gershwin Celebration, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
LONDON jazz singer Claire Martin leads her all-star line-up in a celebration of George Gershwin’s uplifting music and the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody In Blue, a piece that changed musical history.
In the band line-up will be pianist Rob Barron, double bassist Jeremy Brown, drummer Mark Taylor, trumpet player Quentin Collins and saxophonist Karen Sharp. Box office: themiltonrooms.com or ryedalefestival.com.
Maria Gray in the role of The Acrobat in Around The World In 80 Days-ish at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Theatrical return of the week: Around The World In 80 Days-ish, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow to August 3
PREMIERED on York playing fields in 2021, revived in a touring co-production with Tilted Wig that opened at the Theatre Royal in February 2023, creative director Juliet Forster’s circus-themed adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel returns under a new title with a new cast.
Join a raggle-taggle band of circus performers as they embark on their most daring feat yet: to perform the fictitious story of Phileas Fogg and his thrilling race across the globe. But wait? Who is this intrepid American travel writer, Nellie Bly, biting at his heels? Will an actual, real-life woman win this race? Cue a carnival of delights with tricks, flicks and brand-new bits. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Katie Leckey and Jack Mackay: Co-artistic directors of Griffonage Theatre, alternating roles in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter
Fringe show of the week: Griffonage Theatre in The Dumb Waiter, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Griffonage Theatre follow up February’s debut production of Patrick Hamilton’s Rope with Harold Pinter’s 1957 one-act play The Dumb Waiter, directed and designed by Wilf Tomlinson.
Two hitmen, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment, but why is a dumbwaiter in there, when the basement does not appear to be in a restaurant? To make matters worse, the loo won’t flush, the kettle won’t boil, and the two men are increasingly at odds with each other. Unique to this production, actors Jack Mackay and Katie Leckey will alternate the roles of Ben and Gus at each performance. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
One of Anna Matyus’s artworks on show at Helmsley Arts Centre
Exhibition of the week: Anna Matyus, Helmsley Arts Centre, until August 9
ANNA Matyus’s work explores the powerful spiritual resonance of historical sacred buildings and their setting in the landscape. Using etching and collagraph printmaking techniques and a colourful palette, she seeks to bring to life the powerful geometry of the often-faded motifs and time- worn patterns and symbols of historic artefacts found in the masonry and ancient tiles of these sacred sites.
“My final prints explore and record the dynamic rhythms of three-dimensional architectural form, layered with their decorative and symbolic adornment in a graphic expression of awe and wonder,” she says.
Gary Louris: The Jayhawks’ singer, guitarist and songwriter plays solo at The Crescent on Saturday, York. Picture: Steve Cohen
American solo act of the week: Gary Louris, of The Jayhawks, supported by Dave Fiddler, The Crescent, York, Saturday, 7.30pm
OVER three decades, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Gary Louris has co-led Minneapolis country rock supremos The Jayhawks with Mark Olson, as well as being a member of alt.rock supergroup Golden Smog, forming Au Pair with North Carolina artist Django Haskins in 2015 and releasing two solo albums, 2008’s Vagabonds and 2021’s Jump For Joy.
He has recorded with acts as diverse as The Black Crowes, Counting Crows, Uncle Tupelo, Lucinda Williams, Roger McGuinn, Maria McKee, Tift Merritt and The Wallflowers too. As an alternative to the sold-out Sheds on Saturday, look no further than this American rock luminary. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Cutting a dash but in a hurry: Tom Byrne’s Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps. Picture: Mark Senior
Comedy play of the week: The 39 Steps, Grand Opera House, York, July 23 to July 27, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
PATRICK Barlow’s award-garlanded stage adaptation of The 39 Steps has four actors playing 139 roles between them in 100 dashing minutes as they seek to re-create Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 spy thriller while staying true to John Buchan’s 1915 book.
Tom Byrne – Falklands War-era Prince Andrew in The Crown – plays on-the-run handsome hero Richard Hannay, complete with stiff upper-lip, British gung-ho and pencil moustache as he encounters dastardly murders, double-crossing secret agents and devastatingly beautiful women. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
James: Playing Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the fourth time on July 26. Picture: Paul Dixon
Coastal gig of the week: James, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 26, gates 6pm
JAMES follow up Scarborough appearances in 2015, 2018 and 2021 by continuing that three-year cycle in 2024, on the heels of releasing the chart-topping Yummy, their 18th studio album, in April.
“I’m very pleased that we will be playing Scarborough Open Air Theatre this summer – our fourth time in fact,” says bassist and founder member Jim Glennie. “If you haven’t been there before, then make sure you come. It’s a cracking venue and you can even have a paddle in the sea before the show!” Support acts will be Reverend And The Makers, from Sheffield, and Nottingham indie rock trio Girlband!. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/james.
Katie Leckey: Alternating the roles of Ben and Gus with Jack Mackay in Griffonage Theatre’s The Dumb Waiter. York-based actor and director, originally from Belfast. Co-founder and co-artistic director of Griffonage Theatre, studying MA Theatre-Making at University of York. Loves exploring the absurd and the obscure through clowning, physical theatre and snappy dialogue. Excited to make acting debut for Griffonage, having had a blast directing Patrick Hamilton’s Rope earlier this year
YORK company Griffonage Theatre follow up February’s production of Patrick Hamilton’s Rope with Harold Pinter’s 1957 one-act play The Dumb Waiter at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from Thursday to Saturday.
Two hitmen, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment, but why is a dumbwaiter in there, when the basement does not appear to be in a restaurant? To make matters worse, the loo won’t flush, the kettle won’t boil, and the two men are increasingly at odds with each other.
Unique to this madcap/macabre production, directed and designed by Wilf Tomlinson, actors Jack Mackay and Katie Leckey will alternate the roles of Ben and Gus at each performance.
Here, co-artistic directors Jack and Katie and fellow University of York student Wilf answer CharlesHutchPress’s questions collectively.
What attracted Griffonage Theatre to Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter?
“Firstly, it’s a good play! Short and snappy! We were raring to get another show on in the summer, but Jack’s just finishing his third year and Katie and Wilf are finishing up an MA in Theatre-Making.
“Rope was a very long and involved process, so we were looking for something a little slimmer and lighter that we could perform while our schedules were so busy. We wanted to have the chance to really dive into something in detail and we felt like this play, being one of the most well-known two-handers ever, was worth a shot!
“Pinter is a giant of British theatre, and he’s part of the creative pantheon that we all love very dearly. Pinter, Beckett, Kafka, etc. – they’re our bread and butter. The phrase ‘comedy of menace’, which is very closely associated with Pinter, appealed very strongly to the kind of madcap/macabre fusion we’re trying to champion with Griffonage Theatre.
“Drawing out humour in darkness (and darkness in humour) wherever it can be found has always been part of our mission statement, so we thought one of his one-acts would be perfect. As it turns out, The Dumb Waiter might be shorter, but it’s definitely not light. We found that out quite quickly!
“Pinter is masterful with his tonal shifts: the play is hysterical one minute and really dark and gritty the next, just the way we at Griffonage like our plays. There’s humour, yes, but such a powerful sense of abstraction, confusion, and of course a very sinister element that creeps in slowly over the course of the play.
“And we’ll be switching roles every night, so the atmosphere shifts completely with every performance. We were definitely attracted to the idea of bringing something to life in a way that differs every time.
“The rehearsal process has been so rewarding in bringing that complexity to the surface. It’s been a delight to discover. Hopefully audiences experience the same kind of discovery as we did.”
“Gus is a junior hitman. He’s nervous about the job. Which is rough, because things are about to get a lot stranger,” says Griffonage Theatre’s character profile on Facebook
Pinter has come back into favour. Why?
“We feel like there’s a kind of revolutionary cynicism in Pinter’s work that’s definitely appealing to modern audiences. In a wider political context, things have been quite scary recently and are still on dark paths in various parts of the world. Authoritarianism in particular looms large.
So much of Pinter’s writing is a critique – whether directly or obliquely – of unquestioned/unquestionable authority. You can certainly read The Dumb Waiter like that, though there’s a lot more going on in there, too.
“We’re a global, social, online society now, so audiences have never been more aware of those kinds of cultural trends. They’re looking for stories that express the frustration and anxiety that they feel day-to-day, but at the same time they’re also yearning for a bit of levity. Doom and gloom is all right, but if everything’s going to hell anyway, we should probably have a laugh while it does!
“Pinter speaks very strongly to that impulse. It’s the same reason we love Beckett so much.”
What are the strengths of a short play (one act, 55 minutes) as opposed to a longer one?
“In terms of the obvious, a shorter play means that a tighter turnaround on a busy schedule isn’t so frightening. Plus, you have time to unearth the depths of the text when you’re rehearsing a one-act play.
“There’s a lot of scholarship on Pinter, and we’ve luckily had time to square the wealth of critical writing about The Dumb Waiter with our own understanding of the play.
“In more creative terms, the strengths of a one-act lie in its conciseness. It’s commonly said that the measure of a good scene is in its efficiency: its ability to convey a lot of information and emotion in a short space of time. And, of course, 55 minutes is basically the perfect amount of time to build tension without it becoming gruelling. One act, no interval, no escape. It becomes a bit of a pressure cooker. The Dumb Waiter nails that for us.”
What does an early Pinter play say to a modern audience?
“This play in particular has a lot to say about how we distract ourselves from the realities of life with oversaturated guff. These two men are involved in some very shady and violent business, but they don’t ever discuss it. Instead, they just postulate and jabber.
“Not to read into it too much, but as people living in an age of distraction, we’re dealing with a lot of the same questions that Ben and Gus have. They’re very concerned with trivia, banter, cross-talk. There’s a powerful sense of avoidance – the fear of looking danger in the eye. And yet the more it’s avoided, the greater the fear becomes.
“Ben is the senior partner. He runs things around here. Or does he? The dumbwaiter would beg to differ,” reckon Griffonage Theatre in their Facebook character profile
“Fast-talking comedies are in right now – just look at Succession – but it’s the underlying anxiety behind that fast-talking that really pushes the buttons of modern audiences. That same kind of dynamic is present in The Dumb Waiter especially. Why are we here? Why do we continue to do our jobs if we are unhappy or unsettled? Who really is upstairs?
“We are all seeking some sort of answer, but it’s all too easy to make a cuppa and chat about football or a sensationalised story the media are pushing at us rather than open that can of worms. But of course, it could mean nothing at all.
“If you could ask him, Pinter would say you have to watch the play yourself and find out what it means for you individually. We’ve taken that approach as actors/directors, interpreting it our own way, and I hope we can lead the audience to do that as well.”
On a theatrical history note, The Dumb Waiter was written in 1957 but not premiered until 1960, after both The Room and The Birthday Party. How do the plays compare?
“The Dumb Waiter is quite an unconventional play. It forms a loose trifecta with The Room and The Birthday Party, but both of those plays have coming-and-going – the injection of strangers into a familiar space. That’s the source of the menace, and along the way there’s a lot of playing with the typical comedy-of-manners scenario.
“The Dumb Waiter is not like that. It’s pure claustrophobia. It’s two men in a high-pressure environment with no option of leaving. There’s a growing and pervading sense of entrapment. Any external figures are kept deliberately shadowy, ambiguous, almost eldritch in nature.
“We’ve drawn a lot of similarities between it and Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, which is much more famously idiosyncratic, but there’s much to compare. Two men, waiting alone for someone to arrive.
“You could say it’s like Godot in a box. Perhaps that was a little harder to market than something more knowingly subversive like The Birthday Party. But it’s forged its own place as one of Pinter’s finest, if not his magnum opus.”
What is the symbolism of the dumbwaiter [a small freight elevator or lift to carry food] in The Dumb Waiter?
“We don’t want to give too much away for anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, but suffice to say that the play keeps things very ambiguous. We’ve been treating the dumbwaiter almost like a character of its own (which is helped by the fact that a real person is operating it backstage).
“There’s a nice metatextual angle there – a hidden figure manipulating the events onstage. You could see it as a representation of faceless, arbitrary authority. Its ‘dumbness’ is definitely part of that – it seems to delight in creating confusion without explanation. In terms of what it actually represents, the possibilities are endless. We hope everyone will have their own kind of reaction to it.”
Where are the “angry young men” of British playwriting today, Jack?
“They’re out there! Don’t worry about that. But it’s no secret that theatre’s in a difficult place at the moment, and the main obstacle to young people is that it’s getting increasingly more difficult to bring shows to a wider audience.
Jack Mackay: Alternating the roles of Ben and Gus with Katie Leckey in Griffonage Theatre’s The Dumb Waiter. Author, actor and theatre-maker based in York. As co-founder and co-artistic director of Griffonage Theatre, he directed their debut show Poe In Pitch Black and starred as Rupert Cadell in Rope. His debut bookl, Gloam, a horror novel for children, will be published internationally in the autumn of 2025
“A lot of it relies on marketing, which relies on funding, and funding is hard to get. But we’ve worked a lot recently with local writers – a lot of them are students like ourselves, and there’s a great deal of fire and passion and a desire to understand our world and maybe even change it.
“Katie and I are strong believers in the necessity of art as a vehicle for that. And the York theatre scene is very welcoming to new talent. We have a lot of love for Theatre@41 for that reason. Very soon we’ll be making our own original work, and it’s our mission to help provide young playwrights with a platform to get their voices heard, too.”
What does alternating the roles of Ben and Gus bring to the play, Jack?
“The alternating-roles idea started because we couldn’t choose which character we liked more, so we had the hare-brained idea of just playing both. Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller did it [in the National Theatre’s Frankenstein], so why not us?
“It certainly ramped up the challenge. But when we got into rehearsal, it developed into so much more than a gimmick. We take a character-first approach to production, so we got really into the nitty-gritty of taking apart both Ben and Gus and figuring out who they are.
“When we realised we had different ideas about that, we rejoiced. We suddenly understood that our different impulses about the way these men feel about their situation (and how much they know/understand) meant that every show would be different.
“Everything – from line delivery to the actual physical blocking onstage – changes when we swap roles. It’s a testament to Pinter’s excellence as a playwright that such a short and deceptively simple text can be so malleable.
“It’s given us a lot to chew on as performers, but it’s revealed such a fertile ground for interpretation in the text itself. It’s quite transformative.”
What does alternating the roles of Ben and Gus bring to the play, Katie?
“SO MUCH. This has been the most fascinating rehearsal process I’ve ever been a part of, as we get to see how the other person interprets the exact same character totally differently. Sometimes I’ll watch Jack make a blocking or delivery choice and think ‘Why is Gus/Ben doing that? He wouldn’t do that!’
“But then I remember that Jack’s interpretation of Gus/Ben is a completely separate entity to mine. There’s been a few times, too, where Jack has done something and I’ve loved it so much that I try to vary it and put my own character’s spin on it, to see what the outcome is.
“I think The Dumb Waiter is one of only a few plays where this technique can really be effective, as Pinter tells us so little about the men and their situation, so there’s a lot of free rein for an actor to glean what they want from each tiny, seemingly insignificant thing.
Director/designer Wilf Tomlinson. York-based theatre-maker born and raised in North Yorkshire with a background in acting and singing, The Dumb Waiter marks his professional directoral debut. Having studied collaborative devising at university, he specialises in object theatre and puppetry
“Obviously, in each variation the lines are the same, but each time we perform it, it has a completely different feeling to it, and the blocking is different too. I think this approach has enabled us to actively think about what we are guiding the audience to believe about what is happening in the play, and what it means, if anything at all.”
What does alternating the roles of Ben and Gus bring to the play, Wilf?
“From a director’s standpoint, the process of alternating roles has allowed us to create two distinct characterisations for each character. Physicalisation is distinct between each character and each actor, as a result of the differing knowledge that we decided each character has.
“Katie is a much colder and unscrupulous Ben, whereas Jack is fighting with himself the whole way through. Katie’s Gus is a bit airheaded and doesn’t catch on, whereas Jack’s gets suspicious.
“Focusing on these character distinctions from the start of the rehearsal process was effective dramaturgically in creating two entirely different performances that can be performed night to night.”
What will be your design for The Dumb Waiter, Wilf?
“Our main aim was to create an atmosphere of isolation and claustrophobia. We’ve opted for a thrust configuration and utilised the balcony space in Theatre@41’s John Cooper Studio so that some members of the audience are actually looking down, as if into a pit.
“We’ve tried to make the space seem cramped and claustrophobic for our performers, with the audience essentially as voyeurs looking in. In the same vein, I’ve tried to design the set itself in the vein of a rusty dilapidated shack, which jars with the idea that this is supposed to be a café prep room. It’s abandoned and misused: a literal black box of tension and confusion for Ben and Gus.”
What’s coming next for Griffonage Theatre?
“We’re all finishing university soon, and we’re very excited to take Griffonage to the next step, and the next step after that! We’ve recently started a Writer’s Room, where local writers can come together, share their work and learn from each other, and that’s been a really exciting development for us.
“Some are beginners looking to learn the basics; others are totally invested in performing their work and come to us for beta readers and workshopping. In 2025, we’re hoping to provide those creatives a platform to show off their work and get audience feedback. Championing people who are passionate and driven to create – that’s always been one of our main goals.
“We’re also hoping to branch out a bit and offer some acting workshops in and around York soon. Oh, of course a few plays are brewing, too. Something about a diva with no hair, and another about a spirit who’s not so good at haunting spring to mind…
“Very soon, we’re starting work on adapting, workshopping and devising something from the ground up: theatre with an ensemble focus. York’s got such a wonderful base of creative people that we just can’t wait to get better acquainted with. In the meantime, follow us at facebook.com/griffonagetheatre to keep up to date! We hope The Dumb Waiter surprises and delights.”
Griffonage Theatre in The Dumb Waiter, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Shed Seven: Playing sold-out concerts in York Museum Gardens on July 19 and 20
SHED Seven’s 30th anniversary open-air gigs top Charles Hutchinson’s bill. Roman emperors, Ryedale musicians, Brazilian sambas and theatrical Fools look promising too.
York festival of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Jack Savoretti, July 18; Shed Seven, July 19 and 20
ONLY 100 tickets are still available for Anglo-Italian singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti’s opening concert of the inaugural Live At York Museum Gardens festival at the 4,000-capacity York Museum Gardens, when the support acts will be Northern Irish folk-blues troubadour Foy Vance, York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich and fast-rising Halifax act Ellur.
Both of Shed Seven’s home-city 30th anniversary gigs have sold out. Expect a different set list each night, special guests and a school choir, plus support slots for The Libertines’ Peter Doherty, The Lottery Winners and York band Serotones next Friday and Doherty, Brooke Combe and Apollo Junction next Saturday. Sugababes’ festival-closing concert on July 21 was cancelled in April. Box office: seetickets.com/event/jack-savoretti/york-museum-gardens/2929799.
Jack Savoretti: Opening the inaugural Live At York Museum Gardens festival on Thursday
Tribute show of the week: The Illegal Eagles, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm
IN their 24th year on the road, The Illegal Eagles return with a new production rooted as ever in the greatest hits of the American West Coast country rock band, from Hotel California to Desperado, Life In The Fast Lane to Lyin’ Eyes.
The latest line-up features former Blow Monkeys drummer Tony Kiley, Trevor Newnham, from Dr Hook, on vocals and bass, Greg Webb, vocals and guitars, Mike Baker, vocals, guitars and keys, and Garreth Hicklin, likewise. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron: Artist in residence at 2024 Ryedale Festival
Classical festival of the week: Ryedale Festival, running until July 28
THIS summer’s Ryedale Festival features 58 performances in 35 beautiful and historic locations, with performers ranging from Felix Klieser, a horn player born without arms, to trail-blazing Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang, mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron to violinist Stella Chen, the Van Baerle Piano Trio to Rachel Podger on her Troubadour Trail.
Taking part too will be Royal Wedding cellistSheku Kanneh-Mason, Georgian pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, Brazilian guitar pioneer Plinio Fernandes, choral groups The Marian Consort and Tenebrae, actress and classical music enthusiast Dame Sheila Hancock, jazz singer Claire Martin and Northumbrian folk group The Unthanks. For the full programme and ticket details, head to: ryedalefestival.com.
Mary Beard: Revealing the truths and lies behind the emperors of Rome at Grand Opera House, York
History lesson of the week: Mary Beard: Emperor Of Rome, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm
CLASSICIST scholar, debunking historian and television presenter Mary Beard shines the spotlight on Roman emperors, from the well-known Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to the almost-unknown Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE).
Venturing beyond the hype of politics, power and succession, she will uncover the facts and fiction of these rulers, assessing what they did and why and how we came to have such a lurid view of them. Audience questions will be taken. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Maria Gray in the role of The Acrobat in Around The World In 80 Days-ish at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Theatrical return of the week: Around The World In 80 Days-ish, York Theatre Royal, July 18 to August 3
PREMIERED on York playing fields in 2021, revived in a touring co-production with Tilted Wig that opened at the Theatre Royal in February 2023, creative director Juliet Forster’s circus-themed adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel returns under a new title with a new cast.
Join a raggle-taggle band of circus performers as they embark on their most daring feat yet: to perform the fictitious story of Phileas Fogg and his thrilling race across the globe. But wait? Who is this intrepid American travel writer, Nellie Bly, biting at his heels? Will an actual, real-life woman win this race? Cue a carnival of delights with tricks, flicks and brand-new bits. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Katie Leckey: Alternating the roles of Ben and Gus with Jack Mackay in Griffonage Theatre’s The Dumb WaiterJack Mackay: Alternating the roles of Ben and Gus with Katie Leckey in Griffonage Theatre’s The Dumb Waiter
Fringe show of the week: Griffonage Theatre in The Dumb Waiter, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 18 to 20, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Griffonage Theatre follow up February’s debut production of Patrick Hamilton’s Rope with Harold Pinter’s 1957 one-act play The Dumb Waiter, directed and designed by Wilf Tomlinson.
Two hitmen, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment, but why is a dumbwaiter in there, when the basement does not appear to be in a restaurant? To make matters worse, the loo won’t flush, the kettle won’t boil, and the two men are increasingly at odds with each other. Unique to this production, actors Jack Mackay and Katie Leckey will alternate the roles of Ben and Gus at each performance. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Four go into three: Cast members James Aldred, Peter Long, Lucy Chamberlain and Charlotte Horner of The Three Inch Fools
Open-air theatre at the double: The Three Inch Fools in The Secret Diary Of Henry VIII, Scampston Hall, Scampston, near Malton, July 20; Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York, July 23 and Helmsley Walled Garden, August 6; The Comedy Of Errors, Helmsley Walled Garden, July 19, all at 7pm
THE Three Inch Fools, brothers James and Stephen Hyde’s specialists in fast-paced storytelling and uproarious music-making, head to Scampston, York and Helmsley with their rowdy reimagining of the story of the troublesome Tudor king in The Secret Diary Of Henry VIII as he strives to navigate his way through courtly life, while fighting the French again, re-writing religious law and clocking up six wives.
The Play That Goes Wrong’s Sean Turner directs the Fools’ innovative take on Shakespeare’s shortest, wildest farce The Comedy Of Errors, with its tale of long-lost twins, misunderstandings and messy mishaps. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk.
Barbara Marten, York actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison, on show at Pyramid Gallery
Exhibition of the week: Steve Huison, Portraits, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until August 31
THE Full Monty actor and artist Steve Huison is exhibiting 12 studies of colleagues in the acting profession, musicians who have inspired him, an adventurous Greenland chef and a famous Swiss clown.
On show are portraits of fellow actors Paul Barber, Arnold Oceng, Barbara Marten, Will Snape, Clarence Smith and Joe Duttine, musicians Abdullah Ibrahim, Quentin Rawlings and Flora Hibberd, counsellor and therapist Dr Tanya Frances, chef Mike Keen and Grock the Clown. Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.
Mezzo-sopranoFleur Barron: Residency at Ryedale Festival. Picture: Victoria Cadisch
RYEDALE Festival tops the bill for Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations. A tribute to tribute acts, Grimm tales, Roman emperors, Brazilian sambas and theatrical Fools look promising too.
Festival of the week: Ryedale Festival, July 12 to 28
THIS summer’s Ryedale Festival features 58 performances in 35 beautiful and historic locations, with performers ranging from Felix Klieser, a horn player born without arms, to trail-blazing Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang, mezz-soprano Fleur Barron to violinist Stella Chen, the Van Baerle Piano Trio to Troubadour Trail host Rachel Podger.
Taking part too will be Royal Wedding cellistSheku Kanneh-Mason, Georgian pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, Brazilian guitar pioneer Plinio Fernandes, choral groups The Marian Consort and Tenebrae, actress and classical music enthusiast Dame Sheila Hancock, jazz singer Claire Martin and Northumbrian folk group The Unthanks. For the full programme and ticket details, head to: ryedalefestival.com.
Re-Bjorn each show: Sarah-Louise Young in I Am Your Tribute at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Fringe show of the week: Sarah-Louise Young, I Am Your Tribute, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
AFTER An Evening Without Kate Bush, the Julie Andrews-focused Julie Madly Deeply and The Silent Treatment, Sarah-Louise Young returns to Theatre@41 with her Edinburgh Fringe-bound new show, I Am Your Tribute.
In her “most ambitiously interactive performance yet”, she invites you to help her create the ultimate tribute to an act of your choosing. Along the way she will teach you the tricks of the trade, share her greatest hits and uncover the occasionally darker side of living in someone’s else’s shadow. Expect music, wigs and wonderment. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Happily ever after: Rowntree Players cast members in Grimm Tales
Fairy tales of the week: Rowntree Players in Grimm Tales, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm
AMI Carter directs Rowntree Players in Carol Ann Duffy’s adaptation of Grimm Tales, dramatised by Tim Supple, with Chris Meadley in the role of the Narrator.
The cast of 15 takes a journey through a selection of delightfully bizarre stories from the Brothers Grimm collection to reveal their true origins and to discover that the path to a happy ending can, indeed, be a little grim. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Mary Beard: Roman emperors, the truth and the lies, at Grand Opera House, York
History lesson of the week: Mary Beard: Emperor Of Rome, Grand Opera House, York, Saturday, 7.30pm
CLASSICIST scholar, debunking historian and television presenter Mary Beard shines the spotlight on Roman emperors, from the well-known Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to the almost-unknown Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE).
Venturing beyond the hype of politics, power and succession and into the heart of the palace corridors, she will uncover the facts and fiction of these rulers, asking what they did and why, and how we came to have such a lurid view of them. Themes of autocracy, corruption and conspiracy will be explored and audience questions will be taken. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Andrew Methven: Playing a Lazy Sunday Session at Milton Rooms, Malton
Afternoon entertainment: Lazy Sunday Sessions, Andrew Methven & Joseph Wing, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 3pm
HEADLINER Andrew Metheven, from Bradford, pens lo-fi folk songs about births, hills, decay and daydreams and too many about birds, as heard on his June 2024 debut album, Sister Winter, available via Bandcamp. Singer and guitarist Joseph Wing, from Malton band Penny Fleck, will be the support act. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Madness: Welcome to the House Of Fun at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Coastal gig of the week: Madness, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Friday, gates 6pm
MADNESS, the Nutty Boys of Camden Town, return to the North Yorkshire great outdoors for Suggs and co to roll out such ska-flavoured music-hall hits as Our House, One Step Beyond, Baggy Trousers, It Must Be Love, House Of Fun, Michael Caine, Wings Of A Dove, Night Boat To Cairo, My Girl, Driving In My Car, Tomorrow’s Just Another Day and Embarrassment. Standing tickets are still available at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/madness.
Fernando Maynart: Showcasing new album at Helmsley Arts Centre
Brazilian sambas of the week: Fernando Maynart, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
BRAZILIAN singer, composer, guitarist and percussionist Fernando Maynart introduces his new album, TranSambas, showcasing the different rhythmic nuances of samba rooted in Africa via the West African slave trade and the Afro-Brazilian religion.
Maynart, whose set also features songs by Brazilian maestro Dorival Caymmi, will be accompanied by Brazilian flautist Daniel Allain and drummer/percussionist Denilson Oliveira, plus Ryedale multi-instrumentalist David Key. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Four go into three: James Aldred, Peter Long, Lucy Chamberlain and Charlotte Horner of The Three Inch Fools
Open-air theatre at the double: The Three Inch Fools in The Secret Diary Of Henry VIII, Scampston Hall, Scampston, near Malton, July 20; Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York, July 23 and Helmsley Walled Garden, August 6; The Comedy Of Errors, Helmsley Walled Garden, July 19, all at 7pm
THE Three Inch Fools, brothers James and Stephen Hyde’s specialists in fast-paced storytelling and uproarious music-making, head to Scampston, York and Helmsley with their rowdy reimagining of the story of the troublesome Tudor king in The Secret Diary Of Henry VIII as he strives to navigate his way through courtly life, while fighting the French again, re-writing religious law and clocking up six wives.
The Play That Goes Wrong’s Sean Turner directs the Fools’ innovative take on Shakespeare’s shortest, wildest farce The Comedy Of Errors, with its tale of long-lost twins, misunderstandings and messy mishaps. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk.
Sarah-Louise Young: How to construct the ultimate tribute act in an adventure cabaret of singalongs, dance-breaks and audience participation in I Am Your Tribute
AFTER An Evening Without Kate Bush, Julie Madly Deeply and The Silent Treatment, Sarah-Louise Young returns to Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on Thursday with only the second preview of her Edinburgh Fringe-bound new show, I Am Your Tribute.
In her “most ambitiously interactive performance yet”, sparkling host Sarah-Louise invites you to help her create the ultimate tribute to an act of your choosing in an adventure cabaret featuring singalongs, dance-breaks and audience participation aplenty.
Along the way she will teach you the tricks of the trade, share her greatest hits and uncover the occasionally darker side of living in someone’s else’s shadow. Expect backing tracks, a box of wigs and wonderment in an exploration of what it means to pay tribute as she unpacks the unspoken contract between a tribute artist and their fans, inspired by her own experience of creating shows about Kate Bush and Julie Andrews.
“I think it’s a really interesting time for live entertainment,” she says. “On the one hand, audiences are being lambasted for joining in and singing along. On the other, they are being fed musical re-makes and film adaptations which have that invitation baked in.
“Look at the popularity of Mamma Mia! The Party. We want to be inside the action. I wanted to make a show which allowed the audience to join in and take centre stage, enjoying all the guilty pleasures available.”
Sarah-Louise Young: Theatre-maker, cabaret performer, writer, director, improviser and producer
Here Sarah-Louise discusses tribute acts, unspoken contracts between tributes and fans, favourite tribute names and weirdest tribute shows withCharlesHutchPress.
How would you define a tribute act?
“An act of worship and shared fandom.”
What is “the unspoken contract between a tribute artist and their fans”?
“That the performer on stage is not Whitney Houston or Roy Orbison or whichever star they are emulating. Everyone knows it’s an act of worship, make believe and magic. I have heard stories of tributes who take things too far – ending up imitating the off-stage life of the star too – which can be very dangerous when drugs and alcohol are involved.
“The performer needs to know where they begin and the star ends. That’s why I speak about us all being fans. We pay tribute when we listen to a song, sing in the shower, wear a tour T-shirt…
“…Some of us are such big fans, we choose to get up on stage and say, ‘watch me show you how much I love them too’. As I say in the show, ‘every tribute counts’.”
Sarah-Louise Young in the “chaotic cabaret” of An Evening Without Kate Bush
Your shows An Evening Without Kate Bush or Julie Madly Deeply featured songs associated with Kate Bush and Julie Andrews, but they were expressly not doppelganger shows, but had a theme within a structure of songs and “chaotic cabaret”. Discuss…
“For a long time I resisted the word ‘tribute’ in connection to my work. A friend of mine used to be the UK’s number one Madonna tribute and I have huge respect for the skill, talent and hard work it took to pull off a real lookalike and soundalike performance.
“But I was more interested in exploring the dynamic between the performer and the audience and the shared love they both hold for the artist being celebrated. In both the shows you mention, I see my role as a creative facilitator.
“Yes, I sing the songs and guide the audience through the experience but I’m also looking for their stories, their input to influence the show. However, when a review for An Evening Without Kate Bush from The Stage said I was ‘re-inventing the tribute act’, I began to see myself as part of a wider community of artists who all swim in the same sea of ‘fan art’.”
The prospect of encountering yet another Queen or Abba tribute act fills CharlesHutchPress with dread. How do such shows make you feel?
“I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people look down their noses at tributes, and prior to making this show, if I really am honest, I would not have chosen to go and see a straight tribute myself. I’d rather listen to the music at home.
Sarah-Louise Young’s poster for I Am Your Tribute
“But I really had my ideas turned upside down when I went to see a few bands as research. It’s more than just what’s happening on stage. It’s about the communal experience of people getting together.
“You can still go home and listen to the songs, and of course not everyone wants to share their fandom with others, but for many people, coming together at a gig can be a quasi-religious experience. We are tribal by nature.
“It also depends greatly on the band. I know, for some people, Queen without Freddie Mercury is not Queen. But for others, Adam Lambert (who now sings the lead with the original musicians Brian May and Roger Taylor) is the perfect tribute. He’ll never replace Freddie, but he honours him with his performance.
“When an artist is no longer here to perform themselves or chooses not to tour, a tribute can be the only way to hear their songs live. Personally, I’m more excited by performers who bring something new to the table. Like Baby Booshka, who are sadly about to retire but are a United States-based Kate Bush tribute who play multiple eras of Kate and bring great humour, passion and inventiveness to their act. They are doing their final UK tour this autumn and I urge you to check them out.”
Sarah-Louise Young in her Julie Andrews show Julie Madly Deeply. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
What should a tribute act seek to achieve? Authenticity is often stressed for shows by Pink Floyd/Genesis/Dire Straits/Beatles acts, but does it need to be more than that?
“For me it’s about channelling the spirit of the original. I never try to impersonate Kate or Julie, but Russell Lucas (who also helped me to make this new show) and I sought the ‘Essence of Kate’.
“We would never replicate an exact costume, but we’ll take the feathers as a motif from the album Aerial, for example, and weave them into the look for a track from another era. We want to emotionally engage and remind people of why they love the original.
“For the more traditional tributes, there are some incredible Elvises out there. The ones who are really successful manage to embody the passion and energy of Elvis, even if they don’t have the exact same look or voice. I saw a terrific female Elvis who really blew me away with her passion.”
In a world of Oasish and Blurd, what is your favourite name for a tribute act?
“There are so many! I like The Arctic Numpties!”
“I’d like audiences to feel nourished and entertained and part of something positive,” says Sarah-Louise Young of her new show I Am Your Tribute
What is the weirdest tribute act you have seen?
“I love weird so I might not be the best judge! I did see a clip from a BBC programme, which I’m still trying to find the full version of. In it there was a Britney Spears tribute who I would say was about three times older than the real Brittney but utterly committed.
“I’d love to see more elders in the tribute act world, especially when you think of how many incredible artists we’ve lost too young. Members of the 27 Club like Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see how they might have aged?”
Jo Hird, Theatre@41’s publicist, says you have “lots of fun things to say about the life of a tribute act”. Such as?
“Oh, that’s interesting! York will only be my second preview. We’ve changed a few things since London, which is the nature of work-in-progress. The show is less about tribute ‘acts’ and more about acts of tribute. You do learn quite a lot about wigs though!”
Here wig go, here wig go, here wig go: Sarah-Louise Young in I Am Your Tribute
Jo also described your show as “unusual”. How would you describe it?
“Ha-ha… well, I hope it’s joyful and inclusive. We’ve tried to choose songs which most people will know and feel comfortable joining in with. I’d like audiences to feel nourished and entertained and part of something positive.”
I Am Your Tribute is your “most ambitiously interactive show yet”. In what way?
“It’s ambitious because there are a couple of sections where it really could go anywhere. I’ll be trying something brand new on Thursday in York and it might fall flat on its face! But I hope the audience will be open to the adventure, and if it’s all goes south, they can applaud the ambition and laugh with me at the joyful failure. It’s the only way to improve and learn.”
You thrive on being off the cuff, whether in a decade of performing with the Olivier Award-winning improvised musical troupe The Showstoppers! or 15 years of solo work. Discuss…
“I love shows which are made with love and danger. Of course there will be rehearsed moments, songs and stories I want to share – but what excites me the most is the collaboration between the audience and me and what they bring. I love being surprised. I always say there is no such thing as a one-person show. The audience is the missing ingredient. I can’t wait to meet them!”
“I hope the audience will be open to the adventure, and if it’s all goes south, they can applaud the ambition and laugh with me at the joyful failure,” says Sarah-Louise
How will you use the audience in this show?
“I feel very strongly that any audience participation should be ‘opt-in’ and no-one should ever feel under pressure to do more than they want to. It’s the first time I’ve added the word ‘interactive’ into the description of the show, so I’m curious to see whether that changes the dynamic in the room.
“There will be invitations to sing collectively, and some people may find themselves being interviewed or even dancing with me on stage, but they’ll never be on their own. I hope after 25 years of making shows, I am pretty good at spotting who wants to play and who doesn’t.
“There is never any pressure to participate. We have billed the show as interactive on purpose, but if you want to come and experience it in the dark anonymity of the back row, you are just as welcome and valued as people who want to get stuck in and join me on stage. As long as you’re having a good time, I’m happy.”
Tribute acts account for more than 50 per cent of programming in many theatres up and down the country. Why are they so popular?
“Nostalgia, economics and familiarity. Some people want to re-live their youth, be transported back to a time when they first fell in love with certain songs or a particular artist. Plus, tribute shows are a relatively cheap night out.
Making a noise about the voice:Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment
“Tickets to see Taylor Swift start in the hundreds and go into the thousands, but you can see a tribute band for as little as £12. With the economy under so much pressure, tribute shows remain comparatively affordable and accessible.
“For many people, they might only go to a gig or the theatre once a year. Along with panto, tribute nights are a safe bet. You know what you’re going to get… unless it’s one of my shows, in which case all bets are off!”
Sarah-Louise Young, I Am Your Tribute, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 11, 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
She will play Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk, July 25 to 28, performing I Am Your Tribute and An Evening Without Kate Bush; Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as part of PBH Free Fringe, at Voodoo Rooms Ballroom, Edinburgh, August 3 to 11, 13 to 19 and 21 to 25, 12.05pm; box office: tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/i-am-your-tribute.
The Gesualdo Six: Performing in the Chapter House at York Minster on July 9 as part of the 2024 York Early Music Festival. Picture: Ash Mills
A CELEBRATION of the voice, the truth behind Dracula, flying doctors and grim tales lead off Charles Hutchinson’s tips for jaunty July trips.
York festival of the week: 2024 York Early Music Festival, Metamorfosi, today until July 13
IN an eight-day celebration of music from the medieval to the baroque under the title of Metamorfosi, York Ealy Music Festival will focus on the human voice and song with performances by Concerto Soave, The Gesualdo Six, festival newcomers Vox Luminis and Cappella Pratensis & I Fedeli, The Sixteen, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Rose Consort of Viols and Gawain Glenton’s Ensemble In Echo.
Taking part too will be mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, the Consone Quartet, Cubaroque, Apotropaïk and Utopia, climaxing with the biennial York International Young Artists Competition. Full festival programme and tickets at ncem.co.uk/whats-on/yemf/. Box office: 01904 658338.
Princess locked up in the castle: Freckle Productions in Zog & The Flying Doctors
Children’s show of the week: Freckle Productions in Zog & The Flying Doctors, Grand Opera House, York, today and tomorrow, 10.30am and 1.30pm
ZOG, super-keen student-turned-air ambulance, still lands with a bang-crash-thump. Together with his Flying Doctor crew, Princess Pearl and Sir Gadabout, they tend to a sunburnt mermaid, a unicorn with one too many horns and a lion with the flu.
However, Pearl’s uncle, the King, has other ideas about whether princesses should be doctors, and soon she is soon locked up in the castle. Can her friends and half a pound of cheese help Pearl make her uncle better and prove princesses can be doctors too in this Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler story with music and lyrics by Joe Stilgoe? Suitable for age three upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Carnival time in Copmanthorpe
Carnival of the week: Cop’ Carnival, Copmanthorpe Recreation Centre, Barons Crescent, Copmanthorpe, York, today, 11.30am to 7pm
IN its 55th year, Cop’ Carnival features live music acts and dance troupes on the main stage, an inflatable assault course, fairground rides and attractions, street food vendors, free children’s entertainment, stalls and more besides. No dogs are allowed on site, apart from assistance dogs. Tickets are on sale at copcarnival.org.uk/tc-events/the-cop-carnival-day/; under-14s are admitted free of charge.
Sam Johnson: Playing with his jazz trio at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Jazz gig of the week: Sam Johnson Trio, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow (7/7/2024),
THE Sam Johnson Trio, led by pianist Sam Johnson with Georgia Johnson on bass and James Wood on drums, bring a mid-20th century jazz vibe to their performance, in the style of the Vince Guaraldi Trio, Oscar Peterson Trio and vintage Blue Note and Verve Records artists.
Combining original material with jazz standards from the past seven decades, the trio will be joined by guest soloists and frequent collaborators Richard Oakman (saxophone) and Kirsty Hughes (vocals). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Macabre: Killian Macardle, left, Annie Kirkman and Chris Hannon in Dracula: The Bloody Truth at the SJT. Picture: Pamela Raith
Comedy drama of the week: Dracula: The Bloody Truth, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight to July 27
THE Stephen Joseph Theatre teams up with Bolton’s Octagon Theatre to stage physical theatre comedy exponents La Navet Bete & John Nicholson’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth, based very loosely on Bram Stoker’s story.
SJT artistic director Paul Robinson directs Chris Hannon, Annie Kirkman, Alyce Liburd and Killian Macardle as vampire hunter Professor Abraham Van Helsing reveals the real story behind the legend of Dracula, the one with the Whitby connection. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Paul Weller: Reflecting on turning 66 at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Coastal gigs of the week: Fatboy Slim, today; Paul Weller, tomorrow, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, gates open at 6pm
NORMAN Cook has come a long way, baby, since he played bass in Hull band The Housemartins. Now the BRIT award-winning, Brighton-based DJ, aka Fatboy Slim, heads back north to fill Scarborough with big beats and huge hooks in Rockafeller Skank, Gangster Trippin, Praise You and Right Here Right Now et al tonight.
The Modfather Paul Weller showcases his 17th studio album, 66, full of ruminations on ageing, in Sunday’s set of songs from The Jam, Style Council and his solo years. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Here wig go: Sarah-Louise Young in I Am Your Tribute at Theatre@41 Monkgate, York
Fringe show of the week: Sarah-Louise Young, I Am Your Tribute, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 11, 7.30pm
AFTER An Evening Without Kate Bush, the Julie Andrews-focused Julie Madly Deeply and The Silent Treatment, Sarah-Louise Young returns to Theatre@41 with her Edinburgh Fringe-bound new show, I Am Your Tribute.
In her “most ambitiously interactive performance yet”, she invites you to help her create the ultimate tribute to an act of your choosing. Along the way she will teach you the tricks of the trade, share her greatest hits and uncover the occasionally darker side of living in someone’s else’s shadow. Expect music, wigs and wonderment. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Rowntree Players cast members rehearsing for Grimm Tales
Fairy tales of the week: Rowntree Players in Grimm Tales, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 11 to 13, 7.30pm
AMI Carter directs Rowntree Players in Carol Ann Duffy’s adaptation of Grimm Tales, dramatised by Tim Supple, with Chris Meadley in the role of the Narrator.
The cast of 15 takes a journey through a selection of delightfully bizarre stories from the Brothers Grimm collection to reveal their true origins and to discover that the path to a happy ending can, indeed, be a little grim. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
In Focus: Weekend events at Ripon Theatre Festival, July 6 and 7
The Tea Cosies: Street entertainment with Kitch’n’Sync today
PUPPETS, stories, dance, drama, circus and street entertainment pop up in new and surprising places alongside more familiar venues, such as Newby Hall, The Old Deanery, Ripon Cathedral, Ripon Arts Hub and Fountains Abbey, as Ripon Theatre Festival returns for its third year.
Saturday keeps festivalgoers on the move in a day of Pop-Up Events at various locations from 9.30am to 6pm. Ilaria Passeri hosts a morning of adventures for four-year-olds and upwards in Tales From Honeypot Village, featuring Rita the Mouse and the Tidy Trolls in the front room of The Unicorn Hotel at 9.30am and the back room of The Little Ripon Bookshop at 11.30am.
Puppeteers Eye Of Newt open their magical miniature suitcase for Ayla’s Dream, a captivating tale of night skies, light and counting sheep for three to ten-year-olds at Ripon Library at 10.30am (accompanied by a puppet workshop) and Ripon Cathedral from 12 noon to 12.30pm (performance every ten minutes).
York performer Tempest Wisdom takes a journey down the rabbit hole in the family-friendly Curiouser & Curiouser, a show for age five + packed with Lewis Carroll’s whimsical writings, inspired by Ripon Cathedral’s nooks and crannies. Free performances take place at Ripon Cathedral at 11am, 12.30pm and The Little Ripon Bookshop at 2.30pm.
Join the Master and Matron on the front lawn for an interactive game of giant Snakes And Ladders At The Workhouse Museum. Learn how life then, as now, is as precarious as a shake of the dice; slither down the snake to a shaven head and defumigation or ascent to a life out of the ashes from 11am to 12.30pm or 1pm to 3pm.
Festival favourites Lempen Puppet Theatre return with the free show Theatre For One in Ripon Cathedral from 10.45am to 11.30pm and Kirkgate from 1.30pm to 2.30pm and 3pm to 4pm. In a micro-theatre experience for one at a time, plus curious onlookers, a mini-performance of The Belly Bug or Dr Frankenstein will be staged every five minutes.
Tempest Wisdom: Taking a journey down the rabbit hole in Curiouser & Curiouser
Members of the Workhouse Theatre Group invite you to experience justice 1871 style in The Trial Of John Sinkler in a case of poaching and threatening behaviour from 2pm to 3pm at The Courthouse Museum.
Ensure justice is seen to be done or perhaps take a more active role in a lively scripted re-enactment led by Mark Cronfield, formerly of Nobby Dimon’s North Country Theatre company.
The festival fun continues in Kirkgate with buskers, bands and more from 3pm to 6pm, while Street Entertainment will be spread between Market Place, Minster Gardens and city streets with a fiesta of free events from 10am to 4pm.
Mark Cronfield and Tom Frere invite you to hail down the ultimate in Georgian transport for Sedan Chair Stories. Be carried above the hoi polloi as your footmen pass on their scurrilous stories from Ripon’s scandalous past.
Bearded Belfast multi-manipulator and circus performer Logy will be juggling danger and excitement in Logy On Fire, a show of full of raw rock’n’roll comedy. Look out for the beautiful birds of The Bachelors Of Paradise parading their glorious wingspans and beautiful tailfeathers.
In Stone Soup, a suitcase show performed from a travelling cart with music and comical puppets, Hebden Bridge company Eye Of Newt ask this question: can you really make soup with only a stone? The secret to making a delicious soup rests with a wandering stranger.
Street performers and fatal fools Medieval Maniax promise to amuse and bemuse with their historical hysterics, music and illusions. Kitch’n’Sync, from Wales, invite you to have a natter with their colourful crochet trolley dollies, Dorothy Dunker, Tippy Teapot and Barbara Bourbon, alias The Tea Cosies.
Logy On Fire: Multi-manipulator and circus performer
A friendly team from Casson & Friends will connect you with the childlike joy of play in their interactive games, set to a bouncing electronic soundtrack, in Arcade.
Playing their part in the day too will be Yorkshire Voices, Medusa, Ripon City Morris Dancers, 400 Roses And Thorns, Ripon Drum Circle, The U3A Folk Group, The Wakeman Mummers, Ripon Rock Choir and Workhouse Walkabouts.
Weekend community performers contribute to the festival on Sunday too in the form of Lily Worth, Trinity Singers, Freddie Cleary, Ripon Goes To Bollywood, Henshaws Performing Arts Group, Danceability, Passion For Movement, Cricket On The Hearth, The U3A Ukulele Group and Ripon Walled Garden Performers.
Open-air theatre specialists Illyria present Oliver Grey’s adaptation of Hugo Lofting’s The Adventures Of Doctor Doolittle in the Newby Hall Gardens at 5.30pm (gates 5pm). In this new family musical, performed with wit and flair, Doctor Doolittle leads a simple life as a village doctor until one day, with the help of his wise old parrot Polynesia, he makes an extraordinary discovery: he can talk to animals.
Radical Leeds troupe Red Ladder Theatre Company return to the festival to with We’re Not Going Back, Boff Whalley’s Miners’ Strike musical comedy about 75 mines, three sisters, one cause and a six-pack of Babycham at Ripon Arts Hub at 7.30pm.
In early 1984, the everyday squabbles of sisters Olive, Mary and Isabel collide with a strike that forces them to question their lives, their relationships and their family ties.
Sunday has a couple of Pop-Up Events, led off by Opera Brunch with down-to-earth diva Nicola Mills, from Huddersfield, whose song menu at Valentino’s Ristorante ranges from Italian arias to crossover classics, served with sweet or savoury pastries and Bucks Fizz or a hot drink from 10.30am to 12 noon.
From 3pm to 4.30pm, in the Guardians’ Room of The Workhouse Museum, Fellfoss Theatre present a rehearsed reading and workshop performance of Fate And The Warrior, Mark Cronfield’s new play about the troubled and prolific Guyana-born author Edgar Mittelholzer, a pioneer of Caribbean culture. Join Cronfield and his scratch team of actors for a dark and intriguing tale in atmospheric surroundings.
Thingumajig Theatre in Kit And Caboodle
Ripon Spa Gardens and Market Place will play host to Sunday’s Family Day from 10am to 4pm. Look out for the Hedge Heads, suspicious-looking shrubbery lurking in the bushes; Henshaws Performing Arts Group’s The Golden Tree, fairy tales of heroes, villains, royalty and fools, and Open The Books’ The Story Of Daniel, a distillation of all the best bits in 20 minutes, dreams, lions et al.
In Wrongsemble’s epic new adventure The Not So Big Bad Wolf favourite tales are re-spun and woven by Little Red, adventurer, heroine and True Grimm podcaster, on a mission to debunk the myths around her so-called nemesis, with the help of a few storybook staples, her red cloak and a basket full of music, mayhem and magic tricks.
Thingumajig Theatre, from Hebden Bridge, return to Ripon with their big, beautiful, rolling mule packed with miniature puppet shows, full of stories and songs of remarkable journeys and refugees. Struzzo and Maxim, stalwarts of street theatre for many decades, promise music, magic and their famous ostrich.
Three quirky characters are waiting for a train but how will they pass the time in Grantham company Rhubarb Theatre’s show The Three Suitcases? Three Marie Antoinettes take to the street to feed the public their tasty treats in Let Them Eat Cake. Expect a right royal ruckus wherever these comedy pompous poodle-haired queens of comedy go.
Three courageous airmen, Roger, Reggie and Rupert, are caught in a freak storm in The Bombardiers. Armed only with their wits and extremely good looks, who knows where they will end up!
In The Fireman Dave Circus Skills Drop-In, Dave Ford, from Hebden Bridge, invites you to have a go at juggling, plate-spinning, diabolo, hula-hooping and more at Ripon Spa Gardens from 1pm to 2.30pm.
The 2024 festival concludes with Scottish company Folksy Theatre’s open-air production of Shakespeare’s leafy tale of banishment, love and disguise, As You Like It, at The Old Deanery at 7pm. Cue comedy stuffed with music, bold characters and audience interaction. Bring something to sit on, pack a picnic and come prepared for the weather.
“We believe that theatre should be for everyone,” says festival director Katie Scott. “Our varied and accessible programme of events provides real theatrical treats for seasoned theatre-goes, but also lively and low-cost opportunities for first-timers and families. We love bringing events to non-theatre spaces and working with local businesses and other partner organisations to create a buzz in the city which all can enjoy.”
For full festival details and tickets, head to: ripontheatrefestival.org. A preview of further events at Ripon Theatre Festival on July 6 and 7 will follow.
Folksy Theatre in As You Like It in the open air at The Old Deaneryon Sunday
Let us pray…for laughs: The Little Sisters of Hoboken and Ben Wood’s Brother Timothy in York Light Opera Company’s Nunsense: The Mega-Musical! Picture: Matthew Kitchen
BLACK box theatre. Thick walls. No air conditioning, beyond a smattering of cooling fans. Then add nuns’ habits and wimples and the hottest night of the year.
No wonder, in the last breaths of her climactic big number, Clare Meadley’s Sister Mary Hubert suddenly exclaimed: “God it’s hot in here.”
The stultifying heat made the opening joke of Act 2 even more apt. “How do you make holy water?” “Boil the hell out of it!”. Theatre@41 boiled the hell out of us all, actors, Martin Lay’s band up high on the mezzanine level, and audience members alike, some improvising impromptu fans from programmes.
Good news – if not for sun worshippers – lies in the weather forecast. Lower temperatures for the rest of this week, even lower next week. Hallelujah, as the Little Sisters of Hoboken might well sing.
Or at least the last 12 still standing – and dancing, singing, acting, and telling jokes, too – after Sister Julia, Child of God’s dodgy Vichyssoise put paid to 52 of the sisters in a culinary catastrophe. Forty-eight have been buried but, heaven forbid, Reverend Mother Mary Regina (Joy Warner) has chucked money at buying a plasma TV, leaving the final four in limbo in the convent freezer.
Now the Little Sisters must stage a revue and talent show to raise the necessary funds, taking over the set for the 8th grade’s production of Grease at the neighbouring Mount St Helen’s School, James Dean & Marilyn Monroe posters, Fifties’ jukebox et al.
Cue the out-of-touch Reverend Mother mistakenly thinking the high-school musical was called Vaseline, but otherwise Grease references are not milked in Dan Goggin’s 1985 off-Broadway musical comedy.
Inspired by attending a school run by the Marywood Dominican Sisters that first spawned his line of greetings cards of a nun’s funny quips, Nunsense grew from a cabaret show into a full-scale production and later the Mega-Musical version with an expanded cast, more characters and more comic mayhem that Neil Wood is directing for York Light. In a nutshell, more fun per nun.
See Emily play: Emily Rockliff’s scene-stealing Sister Robert Anne in Nunsense: The Mega-Musical!. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
No nun pun is knowingly resisted by Goggin, from the song title Nunsense Is Habit Forming to the sisters’ vow that “on our way to heaven, we’re here to make some hell”, all in the cause of proving that “nuns can be fun”.
Five principal nuns each have a story to tell in both song and tale, enabling nuns and York Light alike to parade “triple threat” skills, whether Emma Craggs-Swainston’s Sister Mary Leo’s ballet dancing on point, or Emily Rockliff’s restless Sister Robert Anne, desperate to outgrow her “understudy” role, the convent equivalent of rising from chorus line to lead, as she parades her gift for mimicry with her wimple.
Kathryn Addison has fun with Sister Julia’s life-endangering cooking, Warner’s Reverend Mother maximises the comedy pratfalls in inhaling a mind-altering substance, and best of all is Annabel van Griethuysen’s forgetful but unforgettable Sister Mary Amnesia, parading her operatic voice, comic timing in eye contact and vocal delivery, even hammy ventriloquism with grouchy nun puppet “Maryonette”, all topped off by a country cowgirl song.
The humour is broad in range and style, occasionally smutty, sometimes slapstick, never subtle, and Goggin’s songs are similarly varied, from gospel to Andrews Sisters’ close harmonies, familiar musical theatre tropes to an ensemble tap-dancing dazzler, choreographed joyously by Rachel Whitehead.
Wood’s cast adheres wholly – and holy – to Goggin’s advice to “play nuns trying to be showgirls and not the other way round”, to the betterment of the show’s hearty comedy.
For added entertainment, the role of Father Virgil will be played in The Play What I Wrote guest turn tradition by a different actor at each performance. First up was Richard Bayton, setting the bar high in his good-natured cameo.
After The Sound Of Music and Sister Act The Musical, once more nuns are making a habit of entertaining in song and dance and unguarded humour in Nunsense. And that habit is catching: even stage manager Sarah Craggs is in nun’s clothes.
York Light Opera Company in Nunsense: The Mega-Musical!, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, running until July 6, 7.30pm (except June 30, July 1 and July 6); 3pm, June 29 and 30 and July 6. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Habit forming: Sarah Foster’s Sister Mary Brendan, back row, left, with, front row, from the left, Clare Meadley’s Sister Mary Hubert, Emily Rockliff’s Sister Robert Anne, Joy Warner’s Reverend Mother and Emma Craggs-Swainston’s Sister Mary Leo in a scene from Nunsense: The Mega-Musical!
NUNS, nuns and more nuns. Musicals love them, from The Sound Of Music to Sister Act and now Nunsense: The Mega-Musical!, York Light Opera Company’s summer show at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.
Running from June 26 to July 6, the divine delights of Dan Goggin’s 1985 off-Broadway musical are being directed by Neil Wood with musical direction by Martin Lay.
“Get ready for a heavenly dose of laughter as we present a side-splitting extravaganza brimming with witty humour, toe-tapping tunes and heavenly hilarity, as well as in tap dancing, tightrope walking and ventriloquism” says Neil.
“Anyone expecting The Sound Of Music will be disappointed; anyone not expecting it will be overjoyed.”
In the wake of the unfortunate passing of four beloved sisters – now “chilling out in the freezer” after a “culinary catastrophe” involving Sister Julia’s dodgy Vichyssoise – the remaining Little Sisters of Hoboken find themselves in a sticky situation.
To raise funds for a proper burial – and perhaps a new cook! – the nuns must take centre stage for a riotous revue and talent show like no other, performed on the set of a school production of Grease that is being staged next door.
Building on the success of last June’s “riotous, rude and relevant” I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, York Light will stage a “mega-sized version” of Goggin’s show with an expanded cast, new characters and even more musical mayhem.
Neil Wood’s full cast for Nunsense : The Mega-Musical!, including late replacement Kathryn Addision, bottom row, second from left, and the ten Father Virgils
“It’s an absolute pleasure to return to York Light Opera Company to direct their summer show for the second year running,” says Neil. “Nunsense: The Mega-Musical is an exciting, hysterical and entertaining show and I’ve been lucky enough to cast 12 exceptionally talented actresses who encapsulate their various characters to perfection. It’s a wonderful show, which I’m sure audiences will adore.”
Among them will be Kathryn Addison, taking over from the indisposed Pascha Turnbull as Sister Julia, Child of God, at only five rehearsals’ notice.
One further cast hitch has required a novel solution, Neil reveals: “As with producing any show, you come across little hiccups, and our original Father Virgil [Matt Tapp] being sent to the Highlands a month before opening night was possibly the most extreme hiccup I’ve had to deal with as a director.
“So, what’s the solution? Do you find one actor who can cover all ten shows at late notice? No! Instead, we’ve found ten actors who can do one night each with limited rehearsal!”
Inspiration came from comedy national treasures Eric and Ernie. “I got the idea having seen the guest actors in The Play What I Wrote, the show based on the life of Morecambe and Wise, and it’s worked exceptionally well!” says Neil.
“We had such a good response from the gentlemen of York Light Opera Company and within days I’d managed to cast all ten performances. It was difficult to get one replacement actor to do all the rehearsals and performances at short notice, and a lot easier to get ten to do one show each, saying ‘tell me when you can’t do it’ and then getting my Father Virgil spreadsheet sorted out by the end of the weekend!”
Among them will be York musical actor, York Theatre Royal box-office manager and 2016 Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Richard Bayton, soon to appear in Bright Light Musical Productions’ York premiere of Green Day’s American Idiot at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.
Sing something wimple: Emily Rockliff’s Sister Robert Anne to the fore in a rehearsal for York Light’s Nunsense: The Mega-Musical!
“It’s not a huge part, but it’s vital,” says Neil. One that requires only one rehearsal, as Richard explains. “We’ve all been sent the ten pages that Father Virgil features in to learn the lines. Then, on the night I’ll turn up at 6pm to prepare for the 7.30pm start, getting into the inner, deep characterisation of what it means to be Father Virgil, sorting out the blocking on stage and finding out who I’m supposed to be flirting with!”
Neil is enjoying his first experience of Nunsense. “I remember that it came to the West End in my nipper days and thought, ‘well, that sounds an interesting show’,” he recalls. “But I’d never thought about it again until I was approached by the York Light committee to direct their summer show for the second time in a row after I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.
“It’s an ideal contrast, a chance to have a totally different cast, with those 12 female roles. It started as a five-hander that’s now a much bigger ensemble show after Dan Goggin wrote more characters and more numbers, and he’s even done a version where you could add children, though we won’t be. “
Neil has even received advice via Goggin’s Facebook posts. “He signs all his posts as ‘Danny’, rather than ‘Dan’,” he says. “He’s advised the cast that they’re playing nuns trying to be showgirls and not the other way round, with ‘choreographed imperfections’ that go with that.”
He loves Goggin’s music too. “Sometimes, you come across a show and you think, ‘um, not sure’, but this one has a fantastic score: there’s country music, Andrews Sisters’ close harmonies, gospel, traditional musical theatre songs, even a ballet routine and tap-dancing nuns!
“Rachel Whitehead has choreographed the ballet and the tap number, and the rest of it has come out of that twisted mind of mine! The lovely thing about doing it at Theatre@41 is that because it’s a smaller space, it’s intimate. There’s no ‘fourth wall’ in the show but there is interaction with the audience because it’s that sort of show.”
Working alongside Neil is assistant director Sarah Foster, from Missouri, USA, who is in the third year of her PhD studies at the University of York.
Annabel van Griethuysen’s Sister Mary Amnesia, left, Emma Craggs-Swainston and Emily Rockliff’s Sister Robert Anne in the rehearsal room
“I saw the show at the theatre where I was directing with a company in Springfields, in the middle of nowhere! One of the 12 to 15 Springfields that The Simpsons never reveal exactly where they’re from,” says Sarah, who has helped the York Light cast to work on their American accents, just as she did for York Musical Theatre Company’s The Wizard Of Oz in May.
“I first saw the five-hander and I remember I was struck by just how genuine the show was; how funny it was; the variety of the nuns’ different stories and the variety of the songs. I wasn’t expecting the tap number in the middle!”
Sarah was involved with Springfield Little Theatre for eight years, mostly performing in musical theatre, before taking up her PhD studies in How the Arts Influenced Climate Change and Sustainability Education.
She finds time to maintain her theatrical involvement, whether as production assistant on York Light’s February production of The Little Mermaid at York Theatre Royal or now playing Sister Mary Brendan.
“She’s one of the teachers at the school connected to the convent,” she says of her role. “She’s the drama teacher who’s putting on the production of Grease.”
Summing up the show, Neil says: “The humour is bonkers with elements of farce, but not a Brian Rix or Feydeau farce. The humour comes from the five principal nuns’ stories unravelling as the Mother Superior tries to hold it all together, not always with successfully!”
“Their personalities keep bursting through, making it more difficult for the Mother Superior to control them,” adds Sarah.
Clare Meadley’s Sister Mary Hubert, front, and Sarah Foster’s Sister Mary Brendan, left, in rehehearsal for the Little Sisters of Hoboken’s fund-raising revue
Nunsense suits the “triple threat” talents of York Light, says Neil. “It needs good operatic singing, country & western belts too, good dancers and good actors, and that’s the joy of working with York Light. There are so many talents you can go to.
“The show is great family entertainment, with a couple of jokes that might go over young heads. Goggin knew what he wanted, and it’s not often you get a script that is so detailed and so full of possibilities to make it funny.”
“The comedic timing is really well thought out,” says Sarah. “And I’m also going to enjoy this show so much because it’s interactive, with conversations with the audience.”
Neil rejoins: “The fourth string to the director’s bow is being able to choreograph those laughs. I love to look for those moments.”
He highlights the comedic impact of a nun’s attire: the habit and wimple. “For the actors, the wimple absolutely focuses the importance of facial expression, but not to go over the top because expressions are magnified by the wimple’s shape,” he says.
“The habit limits the possibilities of the choreography because it restricts movement, but in a good way for comedy, as we have nuns trying to be showgirls, and not the other way round. We even have nuns on point in one number.”
The band members, perched on the mezzanine level, add to the visual impact too. “They’ll all be dressed as monks and vicars, and our musical director, Martin Lay, is playing the role of Father Patrick, leading the heavenly chorus,” says Neil. “Even the stage manager, Sarah Craggs, will be a nun!”
York Light Opera Company in Nunsense: The Mega-Musical!; Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 26 to July 6, 7.30pm (except June 30, July 1 and July 6); 3pm, June 29 and 30, July 6. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Sing something wimple: Emily Rockliff’s Sister Robert Anne to the fore in a rehearsal for York Light Opera Company’s Nunsense: The Mega-Musical
FROM nuns in a riotous revue to a celebration of Caribbean culture, The Fonz’s memoirs to Ballet Black’s heroes of dance, Charles Hutchinson’s arts diary matches the June sunshine.
York musical of the week: York Light Opera Company in Nunsense: The Mega-Musical!, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm, June 26 to 28, July 2 to 5; 3pm; June 29 and 30, July 6
AFTER the unfortunate passing of four beloved sisters in a “culinary catastrophe”, the remaining Little Sisters of Hoboken find themselves in a sticky situation. To raise funds for a proper burial (and perhaps a new cook), the nuns take centre stage for a riotous revue unlike any other.
Director Neil Wood brings Dan Goggin’s musical to mega-sized life in a version that boasts an expanded cast, new characters and even more musical mayhem. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Lynda Burrell, left, and Catherine Ross, founders of exhibition curators Museumand, at the launch of 70 Objeks & Tings at York Castle Museum. Picture: Gareth Buddo
Exhibition of the week: 70 Objeks & Tings, York Castle Museum, until November 4; Mondays, 11am to 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
70 OBJEKS & Tings, a celebration of 75 years of Caribbean culture, showcases 70 items that connect us to the Windrush Generation in an “extraordinary exhibition of the ordinary”.
Curated by mother and daughter Catherine Ross and Lynda Barrett, founders of Museumand, the National Caribbean Heritage Museum, it features objects that combine familiarity and practicality and have been passed down the generations. On show are cooking and household goods, food packaging and beauty supplies, funeral items, music, games, books and newspapers. Tickets: yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk.
Alexandra Kidgell: Soprano soloist for Haydn’s The Creation at York Minster
Classical concert of the week: York Musical Society, Haydn’s The Creation, York Minster, tonight, 7.30pm
FOUR years later than first planned – blame Covid – York Musical Society performs Haydn’s oratorio The Creation under the baton of musical director David Pipe. The choir and orchestra will be joined by soloists Alexandra Kidgell, soprano, Nathan Vale, tenor, and Thomas Humphreys, baritone.
The Creation was composed in 1797, following Haydn’s visits to London, when he was inspired by hearing Handel’s great oratorios, such as the Messiah, sung by huge choral gatherings.
“Haydn’s oratorio is one of the most upbeat and enjoyable works in the repertoire, with plenty of drama for the chorus to bring to life,” says Pipe. “We are excited to have the chance to perform The Creation in York Minster’s inspiring surroundings.” Box office: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or on the door.
Mostly Autumn: Highly summer concert at The Crescent tonight
York band of the week: Mostly Autumn, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm
MOSTLY Autumn may have been called “the best band you have never heard”, but that is a misnomer in their home city of York, where Bryan Josh and Olivia Sparnenn-Josh’s classic rock combo play tonight.
Twenty years of gigging, whether headlining or supporting Blackmore’s Night, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull and Bryan Adams, goes into performing their combination of Seventies’ rock and prog-rock, peppered with a sense of the future. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Henry Winkler: American actor discusses The Fonz and more on Sunday
Coolest show of the week: Henry Winkler, The Fonz & Beyond, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
HEY, Happy Days star HenryWinkler shares stories of his life on the 50th anniversary of his time in Hollywood after being told he would “never achieve”.
The Emmy award-winning actor, author, director and producer, now 78, is promoting his Being Henry memoir as he reflects on his sitcom days as The Fonz, the Happy Days role that defined a generation of cool, as well as subsequent appearances in Arrested Development, Parks And Recreation and Barry. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Tom Jones: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the first time since July 2022
Coastal gig of the week: Tom Jones, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 26, gates open at 6pm
SEATED tickets have sold out for Welsh whirlwind Tom Jones’s outdoor gig in Scarborough but that still leaves room for standing. Sixty years since releasing his first single, Chills And Fever, in 1964, he is still blowing those bellows as powerfully as ever at 84, having made history as the oldest man to notch up a number one with an album of new material in the UK Official Album Charts in 2021 with Surrounded By Time, overtaking Bob Dylan.
Expect It’s Not Unusual, What’s New Pussycat?, Delilah, She’s A Lady, Green, Green Grass Of Home, Kiss, You Can Leave Your Hat On, Sex Bomb et al from Sir Tom. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: Introducing new album South Of Here at York Barbican
Rhythm & blues gig of the week: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, York Barbican, June 27, doors 7pm
NATHANIEL Rateliff & The Night Sweats play York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue on their six-date South Of Here summer tour.
Noted for supplying the zeal of a whisky-chugging Pentecostal preacher to songs of shared woes, old-fashioned rhythm & blues singer and songwriter Rateliff will be showcasing his Missouri band’s fourth studio album on the eve of its Friday release. William The Conqueror support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Crowning glory: Ballet Black in If At First, on tour at York Theatre Royal
Dance show of the week: Ballet Black: Heroes, York Theatre Royal, June 28, 7.30pm
CASSA Pancho’s dance company returns to York with the double bill Ballet Black: Heroes. Choreographer Mthuthuzeli November contemplates the meaning of life in The Waiting Game, a 2020 work infused with a dynamic soundtrack featuring the voices of Ballet Black artists.
Franco-British artist Sophie Laplane, choreographer-in-residence at Scottish Ballet, follows up her 2019 Ballet Black debut, Click!, with If At First, her exploration of “a more subtle heroism, a quieter triumph over adversity, in a struggle that unites us all”. Humanity, heroism and self-acceptance combine in this celebratory piece. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Eliza Carthy: Performing solo at the NCEM, York, and Fylingdales Village Hall
Folk gigs of the week: Eliza Carthy, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, June 28, 7.30pm; Fylingdales Village Hall, Station Road, Robin Hood’s Bay, June 30, 7.30pm
ELIZA Carthy, innovative fiddler and vocalist from the First Family of Folk, heads from Robin Hood’s Bay to York for a solo gig at the NCEM. At once a folk traditionalist and iconoclast, she revels in centuries-old ballads and Carthy compositions alike.
In her 32-year career, Carthy has performed with The Imagined Village, The Wayward Band and The Restitution, collaborated with Paul Weller, Jarvis Cocker, Pere Ubu, Rufus & Martha Wainwright, Jools Holland, Patrick Wolf and Kae Tempest, served as president of the English Folk Dance & Song Society and artist in residence in Antarctica and been described by comedian Stewart Lee as “not the Messiah, but a very naughty girl”. Broadside balladeer Jennifer Reid supports at the York gig. Box office: York, for returns only, 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk; Robin Hood’s Bay, trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/57434.
David Ward Maclean, centre, and musical friends Sarah Dean and Steve Kendra
Retirement concert of the week: David Ward Maclean and Friends, with special guest Edwina Hayes, Friargate Theatre, York, June 29, 6.30pm
YORK music scene stalwart and busker supreme David Ward Maclean plays his retirement gig with friends on the eve of his 66th birthday (June 30). “I’m retiring from all public performance, except the occasional open mic when I fancy it, maybe the odd charity appearance if requested, and will be focusing on finishing recording some 40 unreleased songs of mine,” he says.
Joining David will be The Howl & The Hum’s Sam Griffiths, Bradley Blackwell, Sarah Dean, Steve Kendra, Emily Lawler, Dan Webster, Paul Heaney, Al Hamilton, Robert Loxley Hughes, Amy Greene, Sarah Jennifer and special guest Edwina Hayes. Box office: wegottickets.com.
Stuart Vincent’s Amir in The Kite Runner at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Barry Rivett
THE return of The Kite Runner and Forest Live, a mega-musical full of nuns and a new case for Holmes & Watson add intrigue and woodland joys to Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead.
Play of the week: The Kite Runner, York Theatre Royal, running until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
DIRECTED by Giles Croft, Matthew Spangler’s adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel presents a haunting tale of friendship that spans cultures and continents as it follows Amir’s journey to confront his past and find redemption.
In his childhood recollection, Afghanistan is on the verge of war and best friends Amir (Stuart Vincent) and Hassan (Yazdan Qafouri) are about to be torn apart. Amid the excitement of a Kabul kite-flying tournament, no-one can foresee the terrible incident that will shatter their lives forever. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Murder mystery to solve: Calf 2 Cow in Sherlock & Watson – A Murder In The Garden at Helmsley Walled Garden
Immersive murder mystery experience of the week: Calf 2 Cow, Sherlock & Watson – A Murder In The Garden, Helmsley Walled Garden, tomorrow, 7pm (gates, 6pm)
WHEN a body is mysteriously found lying in the middle of Landsdown Manor Gardens, the police have no option but to persuade Sherlock Holmes to take on his toughest case to date.
Assisted by the loyal Watson, the detective duo must battle through villains to discover who is behind the murder in Bath comedy troupe Calf 2 Cow’s new adaption, full of slapstick, multi-role playing and rock’n’roll, penned by artistic director Matthew Emeny. Bring chairs, blankets and picnics. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Richard Hawley: Made in Sheffield, performing in Scarborough
Yorkshireman of the week: Richard Hawley, Scarbrough Spa, tomorrow (20/6/2024), 7.30pm
ON the heels of his Olivier Award-winning Sheffield musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge opening a six-month West End run at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, Richard Hawley showcases his ninth studio album In This City They Call You Love on his late-spring tour. Scarborough hosts the closing night. Box office: scarboroughspa.co.uk.
Nile Rodgers: Turning Dalby Forest into a disco floor with CHIC on Saturday, when Sophie Ellis-Bextor & Deco will be on the bill too
Welcome return of the week: Forest Live at Dalby Forest, near Pickering, Bryan Adams, Friday; Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Saturday; Richard Ashcroft, Sunday; gates 5pm
FORESTRY England revives Forest Live at Dalby Forest for the first time since 2019 for three nights of open-air concerts in aid of woodland conservation. Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, he of forest fame from (Everything I Do) I Do It For You for Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves, on Friday night will be followed by disco icons Nile Rodgers & CHIC on Saturday and the Wigan singer, songwriter and The Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft on Sunday. Box office: forestlive.com.
Jessa Liversidge: Two Bards And A Songbird, one concert and a workshop in Helmsley. Picture: David K Newton
English and Scottish union of the week: Jessa Liversidge, Two Bards And A Songbird, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
EASINGWOLD singer and choir leader Jessa Liversidge presents her celebration of song inspired by two bards: William Shakespeare and Robert Burns, from her native Scotland. Her heartfelt performance spans traditional folk, pop and musical theatre, sung to her piano accompaniment plus a loop pedal to layer melodies and sounds.
Audience suggestions are invited to enable Jessa to improvise a new song around a Shakespeare/Burns quotation. From 4pm to 6pm, she will host a harmony-singing workshop for participants to sing in the evening show, with a combined ticket available for the workshop and concert. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
York Light Opera Company cast members in rehearsal for Nunsense: The Mega-Musical
York musical of the week: York Light Opera Company in Nunsense: The Mega-Musical!, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm, June 26 to 28, July 2 to 5; 3pm; June 29 and 30, July 6
AFTER the unfortunate passing of four beloved sisters in a “culinary catastrophe”, the remaining Little Sisters of Hoboken find themselves in a sticky situation. To raise funds for a proper burial (and perhaps a new cook), the nuns take centre stage for a riotous revue unlike any other.
Director Neil Wood brings Dan Goggin’s musical to mega-sized life in a version that boasts an expanded cast, new characters and even more musical mayhem. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk
Tom Jones: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre, where he last performed in July 2022
Coastal gig of the week: Tom Jones, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 26, gates open at 6pm
SEATED tickets have sold out for Welsh whirlwind Tom Jones’s outdoor gig in Scarborough but that still leaves room for standing. Sixty years since releasing his first single, Chills And Fever, in 1964, he is still blowing those bellows as powerfully as ever at 84, having made history as the oldest man to notch up a number one with an album of new material in the UK Official Album Charts in 2021 with Surrounded By Time, overtaking Bob Dylan.
Expect It’s Not Unusual, What’s New Pussycat?, Delilah, She’s A Lady, Green, Green Grass Of Home, Kiss, You Can Leave Your Hat On, Sex Bomb et al from Sir Tom. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Sully O’Sullivan: Putting the comedy boot in on June 28 in Malton. Picture: Andy Hollingworth
Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, Sully O’Sullivan, Don Biswas and host Danny Deegan, Milton Rooms, Malton, June 28, 8pm
SULLY O’Sullivan has played New Zealand, Australia, Croatia, Canada and all over Great Britain, now adding Malton to that list. Politically charged Don Biswas covers such subjects his Asian upbringing, his neuro-diversity as someone with dyspraxia, ADHD and ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder], topped off with conspiracy theories.
Northern comedian, writer and actor Danny Deegan hosts the show with tales of mischief and multiple characters. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Alison Moyet: 40th anniversary album and 2025 tour, visiting York Barbican next February. Picture: Naomi Davison
Gig announcement of the week: Alison Moyet, York Barbican, February 20 2025
MARKING 40 years since she left Yazoo to launch her solo career, Essex soul singer Alison Moyet will play York Barbican on her 25-date 2025 itinerary, her first headline tour since 2017.
After graduating from Brighton University in 2023 with a first-class degree in fine art printmaking, Moyet will combine art and music on her 18-track October 4 album, Key, creating the artwork as well as reworking singles, fan favourites and deep cuts, complemented by two new songs. Box office from 10am on Friday: yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/alison-moyet-2025/.
