Sovereign actors Fergus Rattigan, left, and Sam Thorpe-Spinks, right, with playwright Mike Kenny
HENRY VIII and the murder of a York glazier take top spot in Charles Hutchinson’s pick of July highlights with outdoor cinema on its way too.
Community event of the month: York Theatre Royal in Sovereign, King’s Manor, Exhibition Square, York, July 15 to 30
YORK Theatre Royal’s large-scale community production, York playwright Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Tudor-set murder mystery Sovereign, will be staged outdoors at King’s Manor, where part of the story takes place. Henry VIII even makes an appearance.
Two professional actors, Fergus Rattigan’s disabled lawyer Matthew Shardlake and Sam Thorpe-Spinks’ assistant Jack Barak, lead the 120-strong community company of actors, singers, musicians and backstage workers. Tickets update: sold out.
York artist Tom Wilson stands by his artworks in the City Screen Picturehouse cafe bar
Exhibition of the week: Tom Wilson, City Screen Picturehouse café bar, Coney Street, York, until July 29
YORK punk expressionist artist, designer, playwright, theatre director and tutor Tom Wilson is exhibiting his riots of colour at City Screen Picturehouse for the first time with sale proceeds going to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians). Thirty-five works are on display, priced at £175 to £700.
“My art looks like an explosion,” says Wilson, whose dynamic abstract artwork is influenced by Kandinsky, Max Earnst, Otto Dix, Outsider art, German Expressionism and Rayonism (Russian Expressionism).
Industrial Revolution, one of Tom Wilson’s works on show at City Screen Picturehouse
Tribute show of the week: Steve Steinman’s Anything For Love, The Meat Loaf Story, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
FOR more than 30 years, Nottingham’s Steve Steinman has toured the world with his tribute to the songs of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf (real name Marvin Lee Aday). Now he presents his new production, showcasing 25 chunks of Meat Loaf and Steinman’s prime cuts.
Anything For Love combines Steve’s humour and a ten-piece band with such rock-operatic favourites as Bat Out Of Hell, Paradise By The Dashboard Light, Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth, Dead Ringer For Love and Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Sixteen: Marking 400th anniversary of the death of composer William Byrd in Sunday’s York Early Music Festival concert at York Minster
Don’t miss atYork Early Music Festival: The Sixteen, York Minster, Sunday, 8pm
THE Sixteen’s 2023 Choral Pilgrimage is inspired by the influence of Renaissance composer William Byrd in an exploration of his life, works and pervading Roman Catholic faith. His legacy is marked by two new compositions by Dobrinka Tabakova, bringing his musical heritage into the modern day.
The premieres, Arise Lord Into Thy Rest and Turn Our Captivity, highlight Byrd’s influence of modern polyphony and showcase The Sixteen choir in a new light. Director Harry Christophers’ programme also features works by Van Wilder, de Monte, Clemens Non Papa and Byrd himself. Box office: 01904 658338 or tickets.ncem.co.uk.
Emily Belcher’s Emily Webb and Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs in rehearsal for Amerrycan Theatre’s Our Town
American play of the week: Amerrycan Theatre in Our Town, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
FOUNDER Bryan Bounds directs Yorkshire’s American company, Amerrycan Theatre, in the York premiere of “America’s greatest play”, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 study of mindfulness, mortality and brevity of life, Our Town.
“Wilder’s portrait of life, love and death set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional New England town at the start of the 20th century, could happen just as easily in Pocklington,” says Bounds. Tracing the romance and marriage of Emily Webb (Emily Belcher) and George Gibbs (Frankie Bounds), Our Town reveals the hidden mysteries behind the smallest details of everyday life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Amerrycan Theatre’s poster for the York premiere of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town
Outdoor film event of the week: City Screen Picturehouse presents Movies In The Moonlight, Museum Gardens, York, July 14 to 16, doors, 7.30pm; screenings at sundown, 9.15pm approx
CITY Screen Picturehouse heads outdoors for three films in three nights, kicking off on Friday with The Super Mario Bros Movie, wherein Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and brother Luigi (Charlie Day) are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world.
In Mamma Mia! The Movie, next Saturday, Greek island bride-to-be Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is set on finding out who her father is. In next Sunday’s film, Jaws, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss star as a police chief, marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop a gigantic great shark that has been menacing the island community of Amity. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema.
The Counterfeit Seventies: Heading to Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Pop nostalgia of the week: The Counterfeit Seventies, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 16, 7.30pm
IN the wake of The Counterfeit Sixties, here comes, you guessed it, The Counterfeit Seventies, the decade of glam rock, punk, new wave and everything in between. Revisit Slade, Sweet, T Rex, the Bay City Rollers and plenty more, aided by a light show, costumes of the period and archival footage of bands and events from the era. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
Solo show of the week: Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 16, 7pm
AFTER her celebrations of Kate Bush (An Evening Without…) and Julie Andrews (Julie Madly Deeply), writer-performer Sarah-Louise Young returns to Theatre@41 with the highly personal true story of a singer who loses her voice and embarks on an unexpected journey of self-revelation.
Warning: The show includes themes of trauma and sexual violence. As The Stage review put it, The Silent Treatment is a “a war cry and a message of resilience and hope to anyone who has faced abuse and been made to feel guilty about it”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs in rehearsal for Amerrycan Theatre’s York premiere of Our Town
AMERRYCAN Theatre, Yorkshire’s American theatre company, are staging the York premiere of “the greatest American play” from Tuesday (11/7/2023) to Saturday.
Thornton Wilder’s still hard-hitting Pulitzer Prize winner Our Town will be presented by an American and British cast of 18 in an immersive makeover at Theatre@41, Monkgate.
“If you are ready for serious, life-affirming theatre, this play is for you,” says Texas-born producer and founding artistic director Bryan Bounds. “An enduring American treasure and one of the greatest plays of world theatre, Our Town is as radical now as at its premiere in 1938.
“Wilder’s portrait of life, love and death, set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional New England town at the start of the 20th century, could happen just as easily in Pocklington.”
Eighty-five years after it shook the theatrical world, Our Town remains among the most performed plays in the United States and is considered to be the “greatest American play ever written” by Edward Albee, David Mamet and many other playwrights, while writer and theatre administrator Howard Sherman deems it to be “America’s first Shakespearean play”.
Wilder’s story follows the romance and marriage of Emily Webb (Emily Belcher) and George Gibbs (Frankie Bounds), and through them, he reveals the hidden mysteries behind the smallest details of everyday life.
“This play seems so simple and yet it reminds us how fragile life can be and the need to celebrate each moment,” says Our Town director Bryan Bounds
“Given the advent of our digital age and its impact on our lives, now more than ever we need theatre to give us a stark experience that reminds us about the beauty of being alive, connecting with other people,” says Bryan. “This play seems so simple and yet it reminds us how fragile life can be and the need to celebrate each moment.”
Assessing what makes Our Town such a significant American work, actor, playwright and acting practitioner Bryan says: “At its debut in 1938, the play exploded the idea of what theatre was and what it could do. It’s still performed every week around the world because it goes against what [director] Peter Brook called ‘deadly theatre’ (i.e. soothing the audience into forgetting about life).
“This play is what he termed ‘holy theatre’, which shakes the audience up and reminds us what it is to be alive and how we can live life better.”
For all its ubiquity elsewhere, why has Our Town never been performed in York, Bryan? “It’s quite a gamble. It’s a very challenging, ambitious play for a theatre company to put on because it doesn’t fit into a neat category,” he says.
“It seems like it ought to be hokey and sentimental, but Edward Albee called it ‘one of the toughest plays ever written’, because in its story of Emily and George it pulls no punches. It’s ‘theatre for the mind’ and that takes an audience a while to sniff around the edges and book their ticket.”
Bryan first read Wilder’s play in high school, like many American teenagers. “But because I hadn’t experienced much of life, I admired its Pirandello influences but put it aside. But life made me keep pulling it back and exploring, so I saw several performances and each one changed my perceptions of life a little bit more,” he says.
Emily Belcher’s Emily Webb rehearsing a scene for Amerrycan Theatre’s Our Town
“My wife Deirdre was in tears at the end of a production that we saw in London some years ago. That’s when I knew York needed to experience it.”
Bryan runs Amerrycan Theatre from Huby, near Otley, in West Yorkshire. “I moved to Leeds in 1999 after falling in love with a Scouser while I was living in New York City (cue the violins!), and once I got over the culture shock, I saw that there were very few theatre companies producing great, niche works of American theatre – and few Yorkshire actors were getting the chance to sink their teeth into really delicious roles,” he says.
“So we put on Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple and Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and did very well at the Edinburgh Fringe with my play My Name Is Bill: An Afternoon With An Alcoholic.
“For Our Town, the cast is mostly made up of actors from Yorkshire – they’ve loved learning the accent – plus American actors, including Thomas Miller, a local cyber security genius from Illinois, and myself.”
In the Amerrycan Theatre pipeline for 2024 are Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winner Three Tall Women and Eugene O’Neill’s “towering masterpiece” The Iceman Cometh. “For that one, we’ll be transforming Theatre@41 into a seedy New York saloon from 1912,” says Bryan.
First up, Our Town. “Be prepared to laugh and cry with every emotion in between in. The cast promises to make the trip to Grover’s Corners a moving experience that’s immersive, tough, funny, heart-wrenching and uplifting,” the director concludes.
Amerrycan Theatre in Our Town, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 11 to July 15, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
York stage stalwart Rory Mulvihill’s Stage Manager, centre, with Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs and Emily Belcher’s Emily Gibbs
Amerrycan Theatre’s cast for Our Town
The Stage Manager: RORY MULVIHILL
Dr Frank Gibbs: THOMAS MILLER
Howie Newsome: PATRICK GREGAN
Mrs Julia Gibbs: JULIET WATERS
Mrs Myrtle Webb: JESS MURRAY
George Gibbs: FRANKIE BOUNDS
Rebecca Gibbs: CHARLOTTE HEWITSON
Emily Webb: EMILY BELCHER
Wally Webb: HARRISON TURNER-HAZEL
Mr Charles Webb: ANDREW ISHERWOOD
Simon Stimson: CRAIG KIRBY
Mrs Louella Soames: NATALIE SMEATON
Constable Bill Warren: DAMIAN M O’CONNOR
Joe Stoddard: BRYAN BOUNDS
Creative team:
Producer & director: BRYAN BOUNDS Stage manager: EMMA POMFRETT Dramaturg: AMY TONES Music director: SAM JOHNSON Lighting designer: DUNCAN HANDS
Amerrycan Theatre: the back story
BASED in Huby, West Yorkshire, “Britain’s American theatre company” is devoted to showcasing the vitality of American drama in intimate productions.
From classics to contemporary drama, they stage American works seldom seen in Yorkshire and take productions to the Edinburgh Fringe, across Europe and the United States of America.
Amerrycan Theatre’s poster for the York premiere of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town
Our Town in 2023: Thoughts from Amerrycan Theatre dramaturg Amy Tones
“EIGHTY-FIVE years ago, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town debuted and was unanimously selected to receive the Pulitzer Prize for American Drama. Today, it continues to be one of the most produced American plays in the world.
“It has been said that there is at least one performance of Our Town on a stage every day some place in the world. How does this play continue to engage audiences from so many diverse backgrounds?
“The Stage Manager will tell you in minute detail, Our Town, Grover’s Corners, is a microcosm of life. From its opening moments, the play presents life, from birth to death, throwing together the mundane with the spectacular, in a simple examination of what it all means.
“The story unfolds on a bare stage with a few pieces of scenery and pantomimed props. When the play opened, this was a novel experience. Audience members would have been used to a play trying to mirror life, with a clear problem to be solved.
“What they got was a Stage Manager who conducts the actors through their moments and breaks the fourth wall to point out the minutia that won’t fit on the stage, continually reminding the audience that they are in a theatre, adjacent to reality, but separated. Instead of a clear conflict, they are invited to contemplate all the moments that make up life, from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
“From the beginning, as Dr Gibbs returns home from delivering twins – new life – the Stage Manager talks of Gibbs’s death and legacy. Life and death, hand in hand. We’re given the space to contemplate the importance of the everyday actions of living along with the elevated moments that burn bright in our memories.
Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs and Andrew Isherwood’s Mr Charles Webb, right, in discussion in rehearsal for Amerrycan Theatre’s Our Town
“Some have said it is the simplicity of the staging that drives the popularity of this play in a budget-conscious world. Others point out that its popularity in high school and college theatres stems from the training it offers young performers in communicating clearly despite the absence of things.
“Critics of the play assign it to the role of a ‘museum piece’, with nostalgia masking more important discussions of gender inequality, bigotry, or alcoholism that could have been addressed. While there may be some bit of validity to these arguments, they could not possibly account for its ongoing place of honour in theatrical canon.
“The meta-theatricality of the play forces us to focus not on what we see to understand, but on what we perceive. Our minds fill in what is not there based on our experiences. Watching the motions of breakfast being prepared without actual pans or food allows us to recall the sounds, smells, and tastes of our memories. Two ladders can become bedrooms in neighbouring houses on a moonlit night, distracting us from what we should be doing.
“The actors demonstrate their craft, while constantly reminding us that they are actors, and this is a play. Even the points that the critics wish had been addressed remind us this is not a museum, separated from our reality by time and place, but a place with which we can connect.
“At its heart, Our Town puts life on display from birth to death, with all of the wonderful, terrible moments in between, and invites all of us to experience them, reflect on them, and value them in our life and every life.”
The magnificent seven in York Light’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change: Sanna Jeppson, left, Mark Simmonds, Monica Frost, Emily Hardy, James Horsman, Emma Dickinson and Richard Bayton. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen Photography
LOVELY show to finish off York Light’s 70th anniversary. Something a little different. All about love. That adds up to three reasons espoused by director Neil Wood to see the American musical comedy with the tripartite title.
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change has its place in musical history as the second longest-running off-Broadway musical revue, premiered by the American Stage Company in 1996.
Now it swaps New York for York while retaining its American accents for 20 vignettes of universal resonance, each delving into a different aspect of love and relationships, their joys and their challenges.
Those vignettes, humorous, honest, heartfelt, heartwarming and heartbreaking, are full of life, lust and love’s labours lost and found, charting the path from dating to marriage, parenthood to ageing.
Richard Bayton at the wheel, with passengers Emily Hardy, Monica Frost and Mark Simmonds in the On The Highway Of Love vignette
Writer and lyricist Joe DiPietro and composer Jimmy Roberts bring momentum, mischief, romance, frankness, sauce, familiarity, delight, jaw-dropping awkwardness, pathos and passion, surprise and shock, to savvy, soulful, sweet, sour, salacious scenes ranging in length from five to eight minutes, diverse in style, tone and content.
Updated in 2018 to reflect changing times and fads, some take the form of dialogue or a monologue; some are songs; others combine the two. Like a taster menu, there is always another juicy morsel coming along to savour in each 55-minute half.
On an end-on stage with tables and chairs on one side, a sofa bed on the other, those vignettes are in the hands of a cast of seven – spreading the roles wider than the original production’s quartet of actors – and each of York Light’s magnificent seven takes on at least six parts, some as many as eight.
Neil Wood, directing York Light for the first time, put his company through Laban technique rehearsals to settle on characterisation and movement, giving each scene due weight with an emphasis on exposing the vulnerability in so many of the lovers’ tales.
He is rewarded with performances that are truthful and comedic, moving and candid, playing to both individual and collective strengths in a whirl of costume and character changes relished by Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, Mark Simmonds and especially the chameleon Sanna Jeppsson and James Horsman.
Mark Simmonds in Whatever Happened To Baby’s Parents?
Look out for Jeppsson’s arthritic hands when playing an old woman discussing love in a funeral parlour opposite Horsman in arguably the most affecting vignette, Funerals Are For Dating.
Emily Hardy and Monica Frost graduate from the York Light ranks to principal roles for the first time, Frost being particularly impressive, whether in the country pastiche Always A Bridesmaid or her confessional online dating monologue, The Very First Dating Video of Rose Ritz.
Not since Lloyd Webber and Rice’s Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat in their fledgling days has a musical pulled off so many pastiches, from country weepie to Luther Vandross soul, Ratpack smoothie to boastful rap, power balladry to Lloyd Webber and Rice themselves, demanding much of keyboardist Martin Lay’s resourceful band (with Rosie Morris on bass, Katie Maloney on reeds and Jez Smith on drums).
Billed as “riotous, rude and relevant”, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is indeed those three Rs, but it is also real, relatable and richly rewarding. We’ve all been there, done that, now watch love’s highs and woes from the safety of a ringside seat. You will laugh, you will cringe, you may well cry too.
Performances: Tonight (Thursday) and Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Emily Hardy’s bride, James Horsman’s groom and Sanna Jeppsson’s priest in Wedding Vows
York Light Opera Company’s Emma Dickinson, left, Richard Bayton, Monica Frost and Mark Simmonds in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
RIOTOUS, rude and oh-so relevant, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change promises shocks and surprises plus character and costume changes galore in York Light Opera Company’s hands from tonight.
Writer Joe DiPietro and composer Jimmy Roberts’ off-Broadway musical comedy is directed by Neil Wood at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in its 2018 updated revamp in a witty look at how we love, date and handle relationships.
Guiding love’s path through a series of comedic and poignant vignettes will be Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, James Horsman, Sanna Jeppsson, Mark Simmonds and Monica Frost and Emily Hardy in their first principal roles for York Light, as love lives are reflected in art, up close and personal.
“It holds the record as the second longest-running revue staged off-Broadway,” says Neil. “Originally it was done with a cast of four, but we decided to double it to eight to be able to swap things around, and when one cast member dropped out, we stuck to seven.
“We did the first read-through and sing-through in April, so it’s a quick turnaround for a show, but we’ve still had the time to explore a lot of multi-role playing. Some of the cast are playing as many as eight characters, so we did some Laban technique workshops, looking at how characters are created, getting inside them and how the actors move.”
Richard Bayton and Emily Hardy, front, with Monica Frost and Mark Simmonds rehearsing On The Highway To Love
His first step as the director was to find the world depicted in the show’s 20 vignettes. “Then you must find the key thing within each scene; those moments that are poignant; those moments that are the turning point for a character.
“To do that, we had a really rigid rehearsal timescale with only two scenes per night, to really explore each scene, one running to eight minutes, the others to five or six minutes. It’s not a sung-through musical; some scenes are purely dialogue; some scenes are just a song; others are a mix of dialogue and song.
“Those songs vary in style from a Luther Vandross-style soul number to a country music song and a Rat Pack-style number.”
In her York Light debut after performing for Pick Me Up Theatre and York Stage, Swedish-born Sanna Jeppsson will be playing eight roles. “They vary from young and bold to old and experienced; shy and timid to a downtrodden housewife; a happy single woman to a sporty type – a tennis player, though the only thing I do for that is carry a tennis racket!” she says.
“It’s a fantastic array of characters in a show that has such a variety of scenes that can be real or twist reality in others, where you can go more crazy with a character.”
James Horsman and Sanna Jeppsson rehearsing the scene where two old people in a funeral parlour discuss love’s labours lost and found
Neil chips in: “That’s when you have to decide whether a scene is naturalistic or you can break the fourth wall and be very Brechtian, grabbing the audience by the hand or talking directly to them.
“I’ve been really impressed with what the cast has done in making 3D characters. Once you’ve created a scene, you can develop those characters and they have to be true. As well as their physicality, you need to find their vulnerability.
“That’s a key thing we’ve worked on: the intimacy of the scenes where you’re almost a voyeur into people’s most vulnerable moments.”
Last seen on stage leading York Light’s cast in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, Neil is enjoying pulling the strings from the director’s chair. “When we get into Theatre@41, half the fun will be the quick changes, with some full costume changes in only 30 seconds to the accompaniment of scene-change music,” he says.
“The show is split into two 55-minute halves with a 20-minute interval, and the joy for the audience is that everyone will see relationships on stage that they recognise or have been in themselves.
Sanna Jeppsson, left, Emily Hardy, Monica Frost, Richard Bayton, Mark Simmonds and James Horsman in York Light Opera Company’s rehearsal room
“It’s laugh-out-loud funny, a show where you will come out beaming from ear to ear – and you don’t have to think too hard either!”
For Sanna, the rehearsal process has contrasted with her past productions in York. “That’s because this show is so episodic, so it’s almost felt like a different play at each rehearsal, which has been fun as an actor,” she says. “Now it’ll be fascinating to see what kind of reaction we’ll get from the audience, as we bring all those scenes together.
“I’ve been there most nights, where we’ve rehearsed two scenes a night, and it hasn’t felt frantic at all, just enjoying developing new scenes at each rehearsal.”
Neil adds: “We’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to do it episodically, with the majority of the rehearsals being done chronologically, which has helped the cast.”
He savours the accumulative impact of the 20 vignettes. “It’s not just 20 one-act plays, but real people, real amotions, real life, and it’s our job to make each scene as realistic as possible; to find the truth of these people,” he says.
“What I love about Joe DiPietro’s writing is that you definitely get every character’s viewpoint in each scene. He’s very clever at doing that.
Emma Harrison, left, Sanna Jeppsson, Emily Hardy and Monica Frost in a music rehearsal for I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
“In the updated version, there’s been a gender swap in the Two Franks scene, and if there’s one scene that’s a caricature, it’s that scene, but then the reality comes through.”
Neil believes he has come up trumps in finding a cast able to play multiple roles. Sanna, in turn, is thrilled to be taking on that challenge. “I’ve had my eyes on this show for many years, waiting for this opportunity after first hearing about it when I was training in London in 2013/2014,” she says.
“I thought, ‘I’d love to do a show with all these characters parts’, and now the chance has come. It’s everything I imagined it would be – and more. It’s been a joy to work on because the script is really good, the songs are really good…and the director is really good, obviously!”
Sanna will be playing characters ranging in age from 25 to 75, and as she added each new one in rehearsal, she found she could not decide on a favourite. She does, however, then highlight her scene with James Horsman, where they play two old people discussing love in a funeral parlour.
“It’s such a beautifully written scene that says so much with such carefully chosen words,” she says.
Sanna Jeppsson and Richard Bayton in a reflective moment during York Light’s rehearsals
Neil picks out Monica’s closing second-half monologue. “It’s set around online dating and that thing of what we want people to see, rather than who we are, and yet then she realises her true story is far more fascinating,” he says.
Twenty vignettes with so many characters call for a diversity of American accents. “I don’t think it would work if you were to transfer it to Yorkshire or France, but you can place it anywhere in America. Some of the scenes are very American,” says Neil.
“The rhythms of the language scream American,” says Sanna. “Though I did read that it has been translated into a number of languages and it’s been done with Australian accents, but not with British ones.”
“The country song, Always A Bridesmaid, needs to be sung in a Tammy Wynette style,” reemphasises Neil.
As opening night arrives, he concludes: “This is a lovely show to finish off York Light’s 70th anniversary, something a little different, all about love.”
York Light Opera Company in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight (27/6/2023) until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee.Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
York Shakespeare Project’s poster for this autumn’s production of Edward II
YORK Shakespeare Project is to hold auditions next month for its first foray into staging a play by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries.
A diverse ensemble of 12 to 15 actors is sought for Christopher Marlowe’s intimate drama Edward II, to be staged by returning director Tom Straszewski at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.
“We were delighted that Tom emerged from a strong field to be chosen as the director of the first non-Shakespeare play of YSP’s new project,” says chair Tony Froud.
“Strasz brings great knowledge and wide experience of directing Elizabethan and Jacobean drama and promises an innovative interpretation of Marlowe’s fascinating text.
“He previously directed The Merry Wives Of Windsor in 2012 and The Two Noble Kinsmen in 2018, now joining Paul Toy, Mark France and Ben Prusiner as three-time directors for YSP. We look forward to a memorable follow-up to Lucrece and Richard III, the first plays of phase two of YSP.”
In Marlowe’s historical tragedy, Edward II is finally king. Eager to bestow his gifts on those he loves, he calls back his exiled lover, Piers Gaveston. King, court and country are caught up in the heady atmosphere of their passions.
“This is a play about power and love – who has it, who gives it, who takes it, and who suffers for it,” says Tony. “For this production, we’ll begin by exploring the play through creative workshops, editing a script that reflects the people in the room.
Edward II director Tom Straszewski
“No characters will be cast until after this process: you will help decide this, alongside the director and rest of the ensemble.”
To audition, please complete this application form: https://forms.gle/DUGsmNVaLxkrJVZq5. To arrange your audition and/or if you have any questions, email Strasz at tom.straszewski@gmail.com, indicating your preferred day(s) and time.
Auditions will take place in York at a venue yet to be confirmed on Tuesday, July 4 and Wednesday, July 5 at 6.30pm onwards and Saturday, July 8, 2pm onwards. “You’ll be asked to work in a small group on a short scene from the play,” says Tony.
“You will have the opportunity to review the play extract in advance of auditioning and do not need to learn a speech. All we want to see is how you work together and approach the text with adaptability and inventiveness.”
Those cast for YSP’s amateur production must be available for five evening/weekend workshops in late-July, the production week from October 15 to 22 and the majority of the rehearsal period.
“There will be two or three rehearsals per week between August and October, though you are unlikely to be required for every one,” says Tony. “If you are likely to be away for more than two weeks during the rehearsal period but are keen to audition, we’ll see if we can make this happen.”
YSP is seeking recruits for a technical team for make-up, sound, lighting, captions and videography too. If you can help, please email Strasz at tom.straszewski@gmail.com.
Opera singer Jennifer Coleman: Soprano soloist on song at York Proms
PROMS, outdoor festivals and carnivals, here comes the sun and summer fun as Charles Hutchinson reaches for the cream.
Outdoor event of the weekend: York Proms, Museum Gardens, York, Sunday, gates open at 5pm
BRITISH-IRISH soprano Jennifer Colemen, Opera North tenor Tom Smith and West End musical theatre singer, actress and TV presenter Shona Lindsay will be the soloists for Sunday’s York Proms.
Musical director Ben Crick conducts the 22-piece Yorkshire Festival Orchestra in a musical theatre tribute, from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story through to Les Miserables and Wicked. The rousing Proms finale will be accompanied by The Fireworkers’ fireworks. Tickets update: sold out; waiting list for returns at yorkproms.com/contact.
Tom Smith: Tenor soloist at Sunday’s York Proms
Shakespeare Shorts: Twelfth Night, Barley Hall Great Hall, Coffee Yard, York, today, on the hour, every hour, from 11am to 3pm
SHAKESPEARE in only 15 minutes presents an immersive re-telling of Twelfth Night, the one with heaps of mistaken identities, cross-dressing and long-lost siblings.
Barley Hall’s costumed storyteller promises to “make simple a story that has even the characters confused, all while exploring themes of gender identity and the history of cross-dressing in theatre”. Barley Hall admission: barleyhall.co.uk.
Shakespeare Shorts: The artwork for the 15-minute Twelfth Night at Barley Hall
Strensall Community Carnival, Strensall Village Hall and Field, Northfields, Strensall, York, today, 12 noon to 5pm
BACK for its 8th year, Strensall Community Carnival has attractions for all the family, with a procession from Hurst Hall, a food court, 30-plus charity and business stalls and entertainment on the outdoor arena.
Look out for Ebor Morris, The Cadet Band, York Karaoke DoJo, Dynamics Band and Generation Groove in the arena; the Robert Wilkinson School Choir and Band and Mark’s Magic Kingdom Puppet Show in the main hall, and the Captivating Creatures animal show, medieval mayhem with the Knights of the Wobbly Table storytellers, Messy Adventures sensory play and Generate Theatre drama games in the outdoor space.
The Grand Old Uke of York: “Almost unplugged” at Stillington
Uke over there: The Grand Old Uke of York, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, tonight, 7.30pm
YORK collective The Grand Old Uke of York grace the At The Mill stage in an unusual twist to their norm: turning their usual set list on its head to bring gorgeous, pared-back vocals, buttery harmonies and ukuleles played with summery vibes – rather than their usual rock mode – to the garden.
Formed more than ten years ago, they love nothing more than to transform expectations of the ukulele’s bounds. Tonight is a rare chance to see the dynamic group stripped back and “almost” unplugged. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/925922
Party time: Just Josh celebrates a decade of entertaining children’s parties with a JoRo show
Big kid of the weekend: Josh Benson: Just Josh’s 10th Birthday Party!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 4pm
AFTER a decade of doing other kids’ parties, York family entertainer, magician and pantomime silly billy Josh Benson has decided he should have his own bash.
Expect all Just Josh’s usual mix of daft comedy chaos, magic, juggling, balloons, dancing and games, plus extra-special surprises. “It’s the perfect Sunday afternoon treat for the whole family,” he says. “Yes, even Dad. It is Father’s Day after all!” Ticket update: last few on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
The poster for York Printmakers’ summer showcase at Blossom Street Gallery
Exhibition of the week: York Printmakers: A Showcase, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, until July 31, open Thursdays to Sundays
SIXTEEN York Printmakers members demonstrate techniques and printing processes that date back hundreds of years through to those that push the boundaries of contemporary practice, with laser-cut plates, digital elements and 3D techniques.
Taking part are: Harriette Rymer; Lyn Bailey; Bridget Hunt; Carrie Lyall; Patricia Ann Ruddle; Jane Dignum; Jo Rodwell; Lesley Shaw; Phill Jenkins; Sally Parkin; Emily Harvey; Gill Douglas; Becky Long-Smith; Vanessa Oo; Sandra Storey and Rachel Holborow.
Two women up a hillside with ashes stuck to their trouser leg”: Terrain Theatre in Helen at Theatre@41
New play of the week: Helen, staged by Terrain Theatre/Theatre 503 at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
HELEN is 40 when she loses her husband. Becca is 15 when her dad dies. Now it is only the two of them, what do they do next? From Maureen Lennon, the Hull-born writer of York Theatre Royal’s 2022 community play, The Coppergate Woman, comes Helen, a series of snapshots of their relationship’s joys and traumas, laughs and arguments over the next 40 years.
Presented by new northern company Terrain Theatre and directed by Tom Bellerby, this 85-minute play about love, death, grief, postnatal depression, eating disorders, alcoholism, dementia and cancer, and two women up a hillside with ashes stuck to their trouser leg, explores the thread that binds them together and the different ways they damage and save each other. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for the return of Mrs. Brown Rides Again: Heading to Hull in October
Comedy booking of the week: Mrs. Brown Ride Again, Hull Bonus Arena, October 27, 7.30pm, and October 28, 2pm and 7.30pm
BRENDAN O’Carroll and Mrs. Brown’s Boys will be back on stage in their “classic play” Mrs. Brown Rides Again from August to November. The only Yorkshire shows of the ten-venue tour with the television cast will be at Hull Bonus Arena in late-October.
Written by and starring O’Carroll as the beloved “Mammy”, the play finds Agnes Brown and her dysfunctional family romping their way through what seems to be her last days at home. After hearing of a plot by her children to have her put into a home, Agnes decides to prove them wrong by displaying a new lease of life. Box office: bonusarenahull.com.
The Prodigy: “Full attack mode, double barrel” at Leeds First Direct Arena this autumn. Picture: Andrea Ripamonti
Gig announcement of the week: The Prodigy, Army Of The Ants Tour, Leeds First Direct Arena, November 18
THE Prodigy’s Liam Howlett and Maxim will play Leeds on night three of their seven-date autumn arena tour after a spring and summer run of international festival headline dates. Support will come from Soft Play, the British punk duo of Laurie Vincent and Isaac Holman, formerly known as Slaves.
“Army Of The Ants is a calling to The Prodigy peoples,” says Howlett. “We’re comin’ back for u the only way we know, full attack mode, double barrel.” Box office: tix.to/TheProdigy
Soft Cell’s Dave Ball and Marc Almond: Headlining Let’s Rock Leeds
Recommended but general and VIP admission sold out already:Let’s Rock Leeds, Temple Newsam, Leeds, today, gates 11am; 10.30pm finish
HOMECOMING Leeds duo Soft Cell and OMD top the bill at this retro festival. Tony Hadley, Midge Ure, Stray Cats’ Slim Jim Phantom, The Farm, The Real Thing, Roland Gift, Heatwave and Hue & Cry play too. For any form of tickets left, head to: letsrockleeds.com.
In Focus: York Light Opera Company in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 27 to July 1
York Light Opera Company cast member Sanna Jeppsson
RIOTOUS, rude and relevant, Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts’s off-Broadway musical comedy I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change looks at how we love, date and handle relationships.
In a revamp of the original 1996 production, York Light Opera Company stage this witty hit show with a cast of seven under the direction of Neil Wood, fresh from his menacing Sweeney in Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. Martin Lay provides the musical direction for the two 7.30pm peformances and 2.30pm Saturday matinee.
Noted for its insights into human nature and catchy-as-a-Venus-flytrap songs, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change explores the joys and challenges of love in songs that chart the heart’s path from dating to marriage to divorce.
Guiding audiences through a series of comedic and poignant vignettes will be Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, Monica Frost, Emily Hardy, James Horsman, Sanna Jeppsson and Mark Simmonds.
Cue shocks, surprises and songs aplenty as our love lives are reflected in art, up close and personal. Box Office tickets.41monkgate.co.uk
The poster for York Light Opera Company’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
Driller thriller: Birmingham Rep in David Walliams’ Demon Dentist at the Grand Opera House, York
COMEDY aplenty, musical collaborations, dental mystery adventures and soul seekers make a convincing case for inclusion in Charles Hutchinson’s list.
Children’s show of the week: David Walliams’ Demon Dentist, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday, 1.30pm, 6.30pm; Friday, 10.30am, 6.30pm; Saturday, 11am, 3pm
CHILDREN’S author David Walliams has teamed up with Birmingham Stage Company for Demon Dentist, their third collaboration after Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy, aapted and directed by Neal Foster.
Join Alfie and Gabz as they investigate the strange events happening in their hometown, where children are leaving their teeth for the tooth fairy and waking up to find odd things under their pillows. No-one could have dreamed what Alfie and Gabz would discover on coming face to face with the demon dentist herself in this thrilling adventure story. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Isabelle Farah: Sadness meets humour in Ellipsis at Theatre@41
Therapy session of the week: Isabelle Farah: Ellipsis, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 7.45pm
STAND-UP is the outlet that keeps you sane, where the nature of the game is to turn everything into punchlines. But can you do it if you feel all-consuming sadness, ponders comedian/actor/writer/nightmare Isabelle Farah in Ellipsis.
“I wanted my therapist to come and watch me to see how hilarious I am, but I thought how odd it would be performing to someone who’s seen so far behind my mask,” she says. “Would he even find it funny or just sit there knowing what I was hiding?” Cue her exploration of grief, authenticity and being funny.
Elinor Rolfe Johnson: Soprano soloist at York Minster tonight
Classical concert of the week: Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony, York Minster, tonight, 7.30pm
YORK Musical Society and Philharmonischer Chor Münster from York’s twin city in Germany mark 30 years of concert collaborations with Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, using text from Walt Whitman poems.
Toward The Unknown Region, another Whitman setting, takes a journey from darkness to light, followed by the beautiful orchestral work Serenade in A minor. Tonight’s soloists are soprano Elinor Rolfe Johnson and bass Julian Tovey. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; on the door from 6.45pm.
Frankie Boyle’s tour poster for Lap Of Shame, doing the rounds on tour at the Grand Opera House, York
Great Scot of the week: Frankie Boyle, Lap Of Shame, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
SCATHING Scottish comedian, surrealist, presenter and writer Frankie Boyle, 50, is on tour. “Buy a ticket, because by the time I arrive, the currency will be worthless and you and your neighbours part of a struggling militia that could probably use a few laughs,” advises the often-controversial Glaswegian.
Only a handful of tickets are still available at atgtickets.com/york. Please note: no latecomers, no readmittance.
Scott Bennett: Heading to Selby Town Hall
Great Scott of the week: Scott Bennett, Selby Town Hall, Sunday, 7.30pm
SCOTT Bennett has been blazing a trail through the stand-up circuit for the best part of a decade, writing for Chris Ramsey and Jason Manford too.
After regular appearances on BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz and The Now Show and his debut on BBC One’s Live At The Apollo, he presents Great Scott! in Selby. Box office: selbytownhall.co.uk.
Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri: On the road to Helmsley Arts Centre
Rescheduled gig of the week: Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 7.30pm
MOVED from March 3, Bradford soul singer Kiki Dee and guitarist Carmelo Luggeri head to Helmsley for an acoustic journey through stories and songs, from Kate Bush and Frank Sinatra covers to Kiki’s hits Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, I Got The Music In Me, Loving And Free and Amoureuse. Songs from 2022’s The Long Ride Home should feature too. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Neil Warnock: Moving his York Barbican show from June 15 to next May
Re-arranged show announcement: Neil Warnock, Are You With Me?, York Barbican, moving from June 15 to May 31 2024
ARE you with Neil Warnock on Thursday? Not any more, after “unforeseen circumstances” forced the former York City captain and Scarborough manager (and town chiropodist) to postpone his talk tour until next spring. Tickets remain valid.
After guiding Huddersfield Town to safety from the threat of relegation in the 2022-2023 season, Warnock, 74, was to have gone on the road to discuss his record number of games as a manager, 16 clubs and 8 promotions, from non-league to Premier League, and a thousand stories along the way that have never been told. Now those tales must wait…and whose season might he rescue in 2023-24 before then?! Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Kyshona: Protest singing in Pocklington
Discovery of the week: Kyshona, Pocklington Arts Centre, Thursday, 8pm
UNRELENTING in her pursuit of the healing power of song, community connector Kyshona Armstrong has the background of a licensed music therapist, the curiosity of a writer, the resolve of an activist and the voice of a protest singer.
As witnessed on her 2020 album Listen, she blends roots, rock, R&B and folk with her lyrical clout. Past collaborators include Margo Price and Adia Victoria. Now comes her Pocklington debut. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The Illegal Eagles: Taking it easy at York Barbican
Tribute show of the week: The Illegal Eagles, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm
THE Illegal Eagles celebrate the golden music of the legendary West Coast country rock band with musical prowess, attention to detail and showmanship. Expect to hear Hotel California, Desperado, Take It Easy, New Kid In Town, Life In The Fast Lane and many more. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Shalamar: Toasting 40 years of Friends at York Barbican
Soul show of the week: Shalamar Friends 40th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, June 17, 7.30pm
SHALAMAR mark the 40th anniversary of Friends, the platinum-selling album that housed four Top 20 singles, A Night To Remember, Friends, There It Is and I Can Make You Feel Good, outsold Abba, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Culture Club and Meat Loaf that year and spawned Jeffrey Daniels’ dance moves on Top of The Pops.
Further Shalamar hits Take That To The Bank, I Owe You One, Make That Move, Dead Giveaway and Disappearing Act feature too. Special guests are Jaki Graham and Cool Notes’ Lauraine McIntosh. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The poster for the Academy of St Olave’s summer concert
Celebrating England’s musical legacy: Academy of St Olave’s, St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, June 17, 8pm
THE Academy of St Olave’s chamber orchestra rounds off its 2022-23 season with a summer concert centred on England’s musical legacy, from symphonies written for London audiences by the great Austrian composers Mozart and Haydn, to works by English composers Frederick Delius, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Paul Patterson.
The concert is book-ended by Mozart’s first symphony and Haydn’s hundredth, known as “The Military”. Mozart composed his work in London during his family’s Grand Tour of Europe in 1764, when the boy wonder was eight. Likewise, Haydn’s work was one of his 12 “London symphonies”, to be performed during his second visit to England in 1794-95. Box office: academyofstolaves.org.uk or on the door.
In Focus: Who are the York community chorus in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar at York Theatre Royal?
Community chorus sextet Hilary Conroy, Astrid Hanlon, Elaine Harvey, Stephanie Hesp, Anna Johnston and Frances Simon with music director Jessa Liversidge, right
SIX women – all inspirational leaders within the York and North Yorkshire community – will form the Chorus when the Royal Shakespeare Company’s touring production of Julius Caesar visits York Theatre Royal from June 13 to 17.
Step forward Hilary Conroy, Astrid Hanlon, Elaine Harvey, Stephanie Hesp, Anna Johnston and Frances Simon, under the musical direction of community choir leader Jessa Liversidge, from Easingwold, with Zoe Colven-Davies as chorus coordinator.
The women in next week’s chorus have roles in the community spanning activism and campaigning to charity and social work, lecturing, teaching and coaching. In their day-to-day lives they each make an impact on the York community, whether through fighting for social change, championing community voices, supporting vulnerable groups or encouraging engagement in the creative arts.
Between them, they lead and support a diverse range of groups and community causes, including supporting disabled and neurodivergent people, those impacted by dementia and mental health issues, people affected by loneliness and those suffering from domestic abuse. They empower others through the creative arts and performance and champion wellbeing in marginalised groups.
Leading the York group is music director Jessa Liversidge, calling on her wealth of experience with community choirs, inclusive singing groups and working with people of all ages to inspire them through music.
Juliet Forster, York Theatre Royal’s creative director, says: “It’s a huge privilege for us to have these voices heard alongside the RSC’s actors, and we are so thankful for their input and commitment to the project.
“This production explores what makes a leader and asks questions about gender and power. Who better to take part than women who are already leaders in our community and in their workplace?
“The opportunity is exciting and empowering and is strong evidence of how committed the RSC is to meaningful collaboration with its regional theatre partners. We are incredibly proud to be able to contribute a local perspective into this nationwide conversation, and I can’t wait to see what our York women do.”
Explaining the role that the York community chorus will play, RSC director Atri Banerjee says: “Julius Caesar is a play about a nation in crisis, a play about the gulf between politicians and the people they are trying to rule.
“It just makes so much sense to me that this production would include ‘real’ people from where we are touring. So, alongside the professional acting company, we have found a way of integrating the communities from all the areas the show is playing.
“Community work has always been important to me, making work with non-professionals, whether that’s young people or non-professional adults.
“It’s not unusual for productions of Julius Caesar to have a chorus who come on to be the citizens of Rome and say ‘Read The Will’ and then you never see them again. But I wanted to include them to amplify the supernatural, apocalyptic terror within the play. They’ll be singing, using their voices, and will be present on stage for significant parts of the play. They will be something akin to the chorus you’d see in a Greek tragedy watching the action.
“Premonitions of death really. Premotions of figures who embody death in ways that go beyond these characters.”
Royal Shakespeare Company in Julius Caesar, York Theatre Royal, June 13 to 17, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
New face in town: Ryan Addyman in his York Stage debut as Jamie New in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Teen Edition. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen
MADE in Yorkshire, “the hit musical for today” began life at Sheffield Crucible Theatre in 2017. Now comes its York premiere in the Teen Version with a cast of 13 to 19-year-olds led by Ryan Addyman, 17, from Knaresborough, in his York Stage debut.
Inspired by the Firecracker documentary Jamie: Drag Queen At 16, composer Dan Gillespie Sells (from Horsham’s finest pop practitioners The Feeling) and writer/lyricist Tom MacRae worked their magic from an original idea by director and co-writer Jonathan Butterell.
What emerged was the completion of a populist trilogy of Sheffield comedy dramas: the defiant spirit and sheer balls of The Full Monty, the classroom politics and fledgling frustrations of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, and now Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, the unapologetic story of the boy who sometimes to be wants to be a girl, wear a dress to the school prom and be a drag queen.
Since Jamie’s blossoming, two on-topic television shows have had a stellar impact: the couture and coiffeur catwalk and cat-talk contests of RuPaul’s Drag Race on the Beeb and the sass, too-cool-for-school dress sense and multi-cultural diversity of Sex Education, the Netflix binge-watch through lockdowns.
Sex Education shares Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’s bold humour, jagged wit and spot-on social awareness as a barometer of our changing times and attitudes towards gender, bigotry, bullying, homophobia, absentee fathers and the right to self-expression.
Jaia Howland’s teacher Miss Hedge
Meet the Year 11 pupils of Mayfield School, a typical comprehensive classroom of 16-year-olds full of hopes and aspirations, filtered through the realities of life in a northern town.
Among them is Addyman’s Jamie New, from a Sheffield council estate, but feeling out of place, so restless at sweet 16 to be “something and someone fabulous”. After Billy Liar’s Billy Fisher and Kes’s Billy Casper, here is another young Yorkshire dreamer in need of escape from the grey grime, this time in a classic teen rebel story, told from the teen perspective, but rooted in kitchen-sink northern drama rather than the white-toothed gleam of an American high-school musical.
It does nevertheless share one characteristic with the all-American Hairspray, for example, by giving the adult viewpoint in spades. Step forward Jamie’s world-weary, self-sacrificial, ever supportive mum Margaret (Maggie Wakeling, in terrific voice in her heartfelt ballads, If I Met Myself Again and especially He’s My Boy, the show’s most powerful vocal performance).
Always on the lookout for a bargain and ready with a comforting word or a putdown for authority is Margaret’s no-nonsense, cheery best friend Ray (an amusing Eve Clark), and further support comes from dress-shop boss Hugo/veteran drag act Loco Chanelle (resolute Sam Roberts).
Giving Jamie grief are his stay-away, mullet-haired Dad (Tyler Costello) and narrow-minded teacher Miss Hedge (Jaia Rowland).
Maggie Wakeling’s Margaret, Jamie’s mum
The Teen Edition necessitates giving these adult roles to young actors but all respond with performances that convey the age gap, not least in their singing performances.
As for the teens playing teens, not only Addyman’s Jamie scores high marks among the classroom performers, so too do Jack Hambleton, outstanding yet again on a York stage as the everybody-hating, self-loathing bully Dean Paxton, the big fish soon to lose his small pond, and Erin Childs’ quietly impressive, self-assured doctor-in-waiting Pritti Pasha, whose solo number It Means Beautiful is an Act II highlight.
Above all else, everyone will be talking about Addyman’s Jamie. A new face to York audiences, he is Jamie to the manner born: high of voice and heels, a shaker and a heartbreaker, a lippy kid in lip gloss, confident on the swan surface but naïve and vulnerable, wanting to strut before he can walk. Ugly In This Ugly World is his best number, almost matched by his kitchen duet with Wakeling’s Margaret, My Man, Your Boy.
Serious points are made in MacRae’s book, where the multiple confrontations carry both poignancy and punch, and you will love the Yorkshireness of it all: the blunt, knowing humour and the rough-rouge glamour of drag queens Sandra Bollock (George Hopwood), Tray Sophistacay (George Connell) and Laika Virgin (Harvey Jardine), Sheffield’s answer to the travelling trio in The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.
Gillespie Sells’ tunes and MacRae’s lyrics are a delight too, led off by the immediately infectious And You Don’t Even Know It, through the irresistible title number to the show-closing defining statement of Out Of The Darkness (A Place Where We Belong).
Sam Roberts’s dress-shop owner Hugo recalling Loco Chanelle’s days as a drag diva
Musical director Jessica Viner works with a recorded score, but never sits back, always in view of the hugely energetic cast from the mezzanine level. Emily Taylor’s choreography is as vigorous and fun as ever, relished by leads, supports and ensemble alike.
Jo Street’s wardrobe and Phoebe Kilvington’s make-up and hair add to the spectacle, while the design combines glamour with grit: the John Cooper Studio is bedecked in shiny tinfoil and gold leaf with room for Margaret’s kitchen, the classroom and Hugo’s shop to glide on and off.
Nik Briggs’s direction goes to the top of the class, capturing the spirit of a show that “celebrates being yourself and finding a place where you belong”. Individuality and teamwork in tandem, the place where everyone here belongs is on stage, once more emphasising why the arts should never be undervalued in young lives, why there should always be a place for the Jamies of this world to express themselves.
How apt that this thrilling, uplifting production’s weekend climax should coincide with York Pride.
York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Teen Edition, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm, sold out; Saturday, 2.30pm (last few tickets) and 7.30pm, sold out. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Rob Auton (self portrait): Seeking a crowd in Pocklington and Leeds
WHICH shows will draw the crowds? Charles Hutchinson prepares to join the merry throng across the summer beyond the Bank Holiday sunshine.
Crowd pleaser: Rob Auton, The Crowd Show, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 8pm; Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, June 5, 7.30pm
CHARMINGLY offbeat Pocklington-raised poet, stand-up comedian, actor, author, artist and podcaster Rob Auton heads back north from his London abode on his 2023 leg of The Crowd Show tour to play Pock and Leeds.
After his philosophical observations on the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking and time, now he discusses crowds, people and connection in a night of comedy and theatre “suitable for anyone who wants to be in the crowd for this show”. Box office: Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Leeds, hydeparkbookclub.co.uk.
Antler alert: Comedian Tim Vine in his alarming headwear for Breeeep! at the Grand Opera House, York
“Witness the stupidity” comedy gig of the week: Tim Vine: Breeeep!, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm
EXPECT a mountain of nonsense, one-liners, stupid things, crazy songs and wobbly props, plus utter drivel, advises punslinger Tim Vine.
“Tim’s like the manager of a sweet shop where all the sweets are replaced by jokes, and he serves them in a random order,” says the show blurb. “So it’s like a sweet shop where the manager just throws sweets at you. Enjoy the foolishness and laugh your slip-ons off.” Sold out; for returns only, check atgtickets.com/york.
Amy May Ellis: North York Moors singer-songwriter promotes her debut album at The Crescent
Homecoming of the week: Amy May Ellis, The Crescent, York, tomorrow, 8pm
NOW moved to Bristol, singer-songwriter Amy May Ellis was raised on a remote dale on the North York Moors, playing her early gigs at The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale.
Steeped in the culture, scenery, folklore and wildlife of the countryside that surrounded and shaped her as a child, she wrote her debut album Over Ling And Bell – named after two types of heather – in a secluded moorland farmhouse, mostly alone but sometimes with friends. Released on Lost Map Records on May 12, it is available on digital platforms and limited-edition vinyl. She will be joined by her new band for tomorrow’s gig, when North Yorkshire-London combo Wanderland support. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Ryan Addyman as Jamie New, right, in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Musical of the week:York Stage inEverybody’s Talking About Jamie, Teen Edition, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Monday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
JAMIE New lives on a council estate in Sheffield with his loving mum. At 16, he doesn’t quite fit in. He may be terrified about the future, but Jamie is going to be a sensation.
The Feeling’s Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae’s coming-of-age musical follows the true-life story of Sheffield schoolboy Jamie Campbell as he overcomes prejudice and bullying to step out of the darkness to become a drag queen. York Stage artistic director Nik Briggs directs. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Sarah Dean: Plucking strings at the City of York Roland Walls Folk Weekend at the Black Swan Inn
City of York Roland Walls Folk Weekend, Black Swan Folk Club, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, June 2 to 4
TOM Bliss and The Burning Bridges open the three-day folk fiesta at the Black Swan on Friday night, to be followed by afternoon and evening sessions on Saturday and Sunday.
Among the weekend’s acts will be: Stan Graham; Eddie Affleck; The Barbarellas; Blonde On Bob; Clurachan; Union Jill; White Sail; Edwina Hayes; Minster Stray Morris; Caramba; The Old Humpy Band; Tommy Coyle; Paula Ryan; Judith Haswell; Sarah Dean; Chris Euesden and Ramshackle. Full details at: blackswanfolkclub.org.uk/programme.cfm.
Alexander Ashworth: Baritone soloist for Elgar’s Dream Of Gerontius at York Minster. Picture: Debbie Scanlan
Purgatory awaits: University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra, Elgar’s Dream Of Gerontius, York Minster, June 14, 7.30pm
THE University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra perform Edward Elgar’s Dream Of Gerontius with soloists Joshua Ellicott (Gerontius), Kitty Whately and Alexander Ashworth, conducted by John Stringer.
Elgar dramatically sets to music Cardinal Newman’s poem depicting the journey of Gerontius’s soul from his deathbed to judgement before God. On his way, he encounters angels and demons, colourfully portrayed by the chorus, before settling finally in purgatory. Box office: 01904 322439 or yorkconcerts.co.uk.
The poster for City Screen Picturehouse’s outdoor cinema season, Movies In The Moonlight, at York Museum Gardens in July
Outdoor cinema: City Screen Picturehouse presents Movies In The Moonlight, York Museum Gardens, Museum Street, York, July 14 to 16, from 7.30pm
MUSEUM Gardens play host to City Screen Picturehouse for three nights of summertime open-air film action, opening with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, starring Chris Pratt and Anya Taylor-Joy on July 14. Next come Mamma Mia!, featuring Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried, on July 15 and Steven Spielberg’s 1975 shark attack classic Jaws on July 16.
All these outdoor cinema events start at 7.30pm. Films will be shown at sundown; drinks and snacks will be on offer but guests can bring picnics. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor.
Ruby Wax: Presenting the latest Wax work, I’m Not As Well As I Thought, at the Grand Opera House, York, this autumn
Looking ahead: Ruby Wax: I’m Not As Well As I Thought, Grand Opera House, York, September 28, 7.30pm
AFTER four years, American-British actress, comedian, writer, television personality and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax, 70, follows up her How To Be Human show with a stage adaptation of her May 11 book, I’m Not As Well As I Thought, promising her rawest, darkest, funniest show yet.
In 2022, Wax began a search to find meaning, booking a series of potentially life-changing journeys: swimming with humpback whales in the Dominican Republic; joining a Christian monastery; working in a Greek refugee camp; undertaking a silent 30-day mindfulness retreat in California. Even greater change marked her inner journey. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Tom Allen: Completely and utterly at York Barbican
Recommended but too late for tickets
ACERBIC comedian Tom Allen’s Completely gig at York Barbican on Sunday at 8pm has sold out. Completely.
Under discussion will be Allen’s life updates, his vegetable patch and the protocol for inviting friends with children for dinner.
Alan Park in one of those “things in stripes” that makes the seven-year-old boy’s list of brilliant things in Every Brilliant Thing
Make a list of reasons why you should see Every Brilliant Thing.
Thank Duncan Macmillan for writing Sleeve Notes, his book of lists.
Thank actor Jonny Donahue for helping Macmillan to turn it into a one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe and in London and New York.
Put yourself in the shoes of the seven-year-old schoolboy who writes a list of every brilliant thing, every small miracle, to make his suicidal mum realise life is worth living.
Ice cream.
Water fights.
Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV.
The colour yellow.
Things with stripes.
Rollercoasters.
People falling over.
Often ordinary things, but brilliant in their own way.
Mum keeps trying to take her life, and so he keeps adding to the list.
You should do the same. Make a list, I mean.
Especially if you are feeling listless.
Start now.
Well, not until you have read this review.
Thank Theatre@41 supporter Cate Birch for recommending Every Brilliant Thing to chair Alan Park.
Thank Alan for reading it.
Thank Alan, professional actor to boot, for deciding he should perform it himself.
Thank Duncan Macmillan for saying yes to York’s new company Shared Space Theatre making it their debut production.
Thank Alan for asking Maggie Smales – responsible for York Shakespeare Project’s best ever production, the all-female Henry V – to direct him.
Thank brainbox Alan for having the mental powers to remember the script for his lead role in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and Every Brilliant Thing in quick succession.
Thank his Maths teacher of bygone years for Alan being good with numbers. So many numbers, one for every brilliant thing on a list now running to 1,000,000.
Alan doesn’t have to remember all that list but he does have to remember what goes with each number that features in the show.
And remember a running order that is not as easy as 123 to remember.
Because it is not in numerical order.
And sometimes a number is repeated.
And repeated.
Again.
Much later.
It all adds up to a breathtaking and sometimes breathless display of skills in breaking down theatre’s fourth wall.
Result: The audience immediately feels part of the hour-long show.
Whether reading out a brilliant thing from the list on a number cue.
Or having fun when gently enticed by Alan into playing a role.
Such as?
A teacher with a sock puppet of a dog, requiring Alan’s recruit to remove a shoe and sock to play the part.
Or the boy’s father, but then switching with Alan for him to play the father and you, the son, en route to hospital, asking “Why” in response to everything he says.
Why?
Because that’s what children do.
Why?
Don’t ask.
Later play the father again, this time in a wedding breakfast speech…revealing a Texan accent.
Prompting Alan’s character – he has no name – to comment on suddenly discovering unexpected American roots.
Describe a woman with an orange top and blonde hair from Macmillan’s story…and promptly ask a woman in the front row in orange, with blonde hair, to play that character.
Make eye contact with another female member of the audience.
She happens to be an actress, serendipitously. A rather good one.
Flo Poskitt.
One half of Fladam.
York’s musical comedy double act with Adam Sowter.
Catch them in Green Fingers at next week’s TakeOver Festival at York Theatre Royal.
May 27, 3pm.
Box office: 01904 623568.
Or yortheatreroyal.co.uk.
She willingly plays a woman called Sam with whom Alan’s character bonds over a love of books.
They fall in love.
They marry…after Flo’s Sam goes down on one unsteady knee to propose to him in an equally unsteady voice.
Prompting a comment from Alan.
He’s good at that.
The impromptu stuff.
Off the cuff.
On the mark.
It all helps that we are seated in two rows in the round, with no-one allowed upstairs under Macmillan’s strict rules of democracy to create a shared experience.
There are a few empty chairs.
But that’s good.
Because Alan is only too happy to occupy any empty chair, next to whoever, and spring from chair to chair.
Because, as George Osborne once said: “We are all in this together.”
Although not in Chancellor George’s case, we weren’t.
But definitely in Every Brilliant Thing.
The list keeps growing.
Music.
Lots of music.
The way Ray Charles sings “You” in Drown In My Own Tears.
But not jazz.
Instrumental jazz, to be precise.
Music that “sounds like it’s falling down the stairs”.
Music to signify you should stay out of dad’s way at that moment.
The marriage ends. Wham bam, exit Sam.
The list stops.
Suddenly.
Well past 800,000.
Only to start again years later.
Like suddenly revisiting an old diary and feeling inspired to begin Dear Diarying all over again.
Alan’s character has a serious point to make.
Suicide. Don’t do it. There has to be something to live for, he says. Hence the list. Hence this show.
And if the play has troubled you, Alan will be on hand afterwards to talk about its themes.
This week’s production happens to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.
More details at mentalhealth.org.uk.
Every Brilliant Thing does address depression, suicide, death (beginning with the family pet), but it is uplifting, joyous, funny too.
A difficult balancing act.
But negotiated skilfully by Macmillan and Donahue, and now Park and Smales. Never glib. Often profound. Comforting. Thought provoking.
Life changing?
You decide.
There are still three opportunities to see Every Brilliant Thing.
Tonight at 7.30pm.
Tomorrow at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.
At the venue that won Best Entertainment Venue at Thursday night’s YorkMix Choice Awards 2023.
Congratulations, Alan and all the team at Theatre@41.
Another reason to…
Add Every Brilliant Thing to your list of what to do this weekend. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
