Theatre@41 Monkgate – charleshutchpress

October 8, 2025October 8, 2025

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 44, from Gazette & Herald

Griffonage Theatre: Theatre at the intersection of the madcap and the macabre

IRISH village tales, love’s vicissitudes, folk and ceilidh nights and ghost & goblin storytelling bring autumn cheer to Charles Hutchinson.

Time to discover: Griffonage Theatre in FourTold, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

YORK devotees of the madcap, the macabre and making the familiar strange and the strange familiar, Griffonage Theatre transport audiences to the quirky rural town of Baile Aighneas – The Town of Dispute – for FourTold, a quartet of comedies by early 20th century Irish playwright Lady Augusta Gregory, never presented together in the UK until now under Northern Irish director Katie Leckey.

Encounter the bustling market and all its gossip in Spreading The News; the restaurant where newspaper editors wine, dine and mix up their Coats; the post office, where the splendid Hyacinth Halvey has sent word he is coming to town, and the bus stop where strangers such as The Bogie Men can quickly become friends! Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Joe Layton and Hannah Sinclair Robinson in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Scott Graham

Relationship drama of the week: Frantic Assembly in Lost Atoms, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

FRANTIC Assembly follow up York Theatre Royal visits of Othello and Metamorphosis with their 30th anniversary production, a two-hander memory play by Anna Jordan, directed by physical theatre specialist Scott Graham.

Joe Layton and Hannah Sinclair Robinson play Robbie and Jess, whose chance meeting, disastrous dates and extraordinary transformative love is the stuff of fairy tales. Or is it? Lost Atoms is a wild ride through a life-changing relationship, or Robbie and Jess’s clashing recollections as they relive the beats of connection, the moments of loss, but are their stories the same and can their memories be trusted? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie: Pure entertainment at York Barbican

Oh, lucky you gig of the week: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today, 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, York Barbican, tomorrow, 8pm

NOW in his 36th year of leading Liverpool’s Lightning Seeds, Ian Broudie heads to York on his extended Tomorrow’s Here Today tour. Cue Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions et al. Casino support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jack Fry’s Quasimodo and Ayana Beatrice Poblete’s Esmerelda in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

Musical of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 10, 11 and 14 to 18, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

BLACK Sheep Theatre Productions bring a cast of five leads, seven ensemble actors and a 23-strong choir to the York company’s larger-than-life staging of Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz’s musical rooted in Disney’s 1996 musical film and Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel.

Combining powerful themes of love, acceptance and the nature of good and evil with a sweeping score, Matthew Peter Clare’s show will be “like nothing you’ve seen before”. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Alex Mitchell: Headlining the Funny Fridays comedy bill at Patch at Bonding Warehouse, York

Comedy gig of the week: Funny Fridays, Patch at Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, Friday, 7.30pm

BRITAIN’S Got Talent star Alex Mitchell headlines October’s Funny Fridays bill at Patch, hosted by promoter and comedy turn Katie Lingo. On the bill too will be Pheebs Stephenson, Jacob Kohn, Lorna Green and Jimmy Johnson.

“As this year’s event falls on World Mental Health Day, we’re raising money for Samaritans with bucket collections, ticket proceeds and a raffle. I’m a volunteer at the York branch and see first-hand the incredible work they do.” Tickets: eventbrite.co.uk or on the door.

Suthering’s Julu Irvine and and Heg Brignall: Playing Helmsley Arts Centre

Folk gig of the week: Suthering, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

ADVOCATES for the LGBTQ+ community and for the rights of women and other marginalised people, Tavistock folk duo Suthering’s Julu Irvine and and Heg Brignall weave harmonies through their original songs, paired with gentle guitar and emotive piano arrangements.

Known for their chemistry, storytelling and humour on stage, they intertwine their messages about the state of our climate, social conscience, the importance of community and connecting with nature, while championing female characters, creating new narratives for women and unearthing the female heroines of the folk tradition, as heard on their second album, 2024’s Leave A Light On. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Ceilidh of the week: Jackhare Ceilidh Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 7.30pm

RYEDALE Dog Rescue presents the Jackhare Ceilidh Band in an evening of traditional English dance music this weekend. Doors open at 7pm and the Studio Bar will be open. Tickets must be pre-booked by emailing fundraising@ryedaledogrescue.org.uk, phoning 01653 697548, texting 07843 971973 or messaging on the Ryedale Dog Rescue Facebook page.

Robin Simpson: Storyteller and York Theatre Royal pantomime dame

Spooky entertainment of the week: Robin Simpson’s Magic, Monsters And Mayhem!, Rise at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, October 12, doors 4pm

YORK Theatre Royal pantomime dame Robin Simpson – soon to give his Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty this winter – celebrates witches, wizards, ghosts and goblins in his storytelling show.

“The audience is in charge in this interactive performance, ideal for fans of spooky stories and silly songs,” says Robin. “The show is perfect for Years 5 and upwards, but smaller siblings and their grown-ups are very welcome too.” Tickets: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Beverley Knight: Stories and songs at York Barbican. Picture: Lewis Shaw

Concert announcement of the week: Beverly Knight, Born To Perform, York Barbican, June 20 2026

QUEEN of British soul Beverley Knight will share stories from her life on stage, as well as performing her biggest hits, musical theatre favourites and cherished songs that have inspired her.

“I’m excited to get back on the road but with a different kind of show that folk are used to with me,” says Wolverhampton-born Beverley, 52. “Born To Perform is me taking you on a journey through my life on both music and theatre stages, using my memories and of course my songs. I’m stripping back my sound so the audience can lean in a little closer and really hear my soul.” Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/beverley-knight-2026.

October 4, 2025October 4, 2025

More Things To Do in York & beyond when the air turns blue and the skies glower. Hutch’s List No. 44, from The York Press

Roy Chubby Brown: No offence, but it’s simply comedy, reckons Britain’s stalwart potty-mouthed joker at York Barbican

FROM sacre bleu comedy to a French silent film, Graham Nash and Al Stewart on vintage form to Grayson Perry on good and evil, love’s vicissitudes to the Hunchback musical, October is brewing up a storm of culture, reports Charles Hutchinson.

Blue humour of the week: Roy Chubby Brown, It’s Simply Comedy, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

GRANGETOWN gag veteran Roy Chubby Brown, now 80, forewarns: “Not meant to offend, it’s simply a comedy tour”. After more than 50 years of spicy one-liners and putdowns, he continues to tackle the subjects of sex, celebrities, politics and British culture with a high profanity count and contempt for political correctness. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Gemma Curry in Hoglets Theatre’s The Tale Of The Loneliest Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio

Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre in The Tale Of The Loneliest Whale, York Theatre Royal Studio, today, 11am and 2pm

FRESH from an award-winning Edinburgh Fringe run, York company Hoglets Theatre invite primary-age children and families to an exciting adventure packed with beautiful handmade puppets, sea creatures, original songs and audience interaction aplenty.

Performed, crafted and directed by Gemma Curry, The Tale Of The Loneliest Whale celebrates friendship, difference and the beauty of being yourself in Andy Curry’s tale of Whale singing his heart out into the deep blue sea, but nobody singing back until…a mysterious voice echoes through the waves, whereupon Whale embarks on an unforgettable adventure. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Graham Nash: Sixty years of song at York Barbican. Picture: Ralf Louis

Vintage gigs of the week: Graham Nash, An Evening Of Songs And Stories, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm; Al Stewart, The Farewell Tour, York Barbican, October 7, 7.45pm

GRAHAM Nash, 83-year-old two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy award winner, performs songs spanning his 60-year career fromThe Hollies to Crosby, Stills andNash, CSNY (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) to his solo career, joined by Todd Caldwell (keyboards and vocals), Adam Minkoff(bass, drums, guitars and vocals) and Zach Djanikian (guitars, mandolin, drums and vocals). Long-time friend Peter Asher supports.

The poster for Al Stewart’s farewell tour, visiting York Barbican on Tuesday

Glasgow-born folk-rock singer-songwriter Al Stewart marks his 80th birthday (born 5/9/1945) with his UK farewell tour. After relocating to Chandler Arizona from Los Angeles, his home for the past 45 years, he is winding down his touring schedule with his long-running time band The Empty Pockets. Time for the last Year Of The Cat. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jonny Best: Leading Frame Ensemble’s improvised score for The Divine Voyager at the NCEM. Picture: Chris Payne

Film event of the week: Northern Silents presents The Divine Voyager with Frame Ensemble, National Centre for Early Music, York, Monday, 7.30pm

FRAME Ensemble’s spontaneous musicians Jonny Best (piano), Susannah Simmons (violin), Liz Hanks (cello) and Trevor Bartlett (percussion) accompany Julien Duvivier’s lushly photographed, beautifully poetic 1929 French silent film The Divine Voyage with an improvised live score.

In a tale of faith and hope, rapacious businessman Claude Ferjac sends his ship, La Cordillere, on a long trading journey, knowing it is likely to sink after poor repairs. An entire village of sailors, desperate to support their families, has no choice but to set sail. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

James Lee, left, Helen Clarke, front, Wilf Tomlinson, back, and Katie Leckey rehearsing for Griffonage Theatre’s FourTold. Picture: John Stead

Time to discover: Griffonage Theatre in FourTold, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Jess and Joe Layton’s Robbie in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms, on tour at York Theatre Royal next week. Picture: Tristram Kenton

Relationship drama of the week: Frantic Assembly in Lost Atoms, York Theatre Royal, October 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

Grayson Perry: “Finding out if you really are thoroughly good or maybe quite evil, but in a fun way” at the Grand Opera House

Question of the week: Grayson Perry: Are You Good?, Grand Opera House, October 7, 7.30pm

AFTER A Show For Normal People And A Show All About You, artist, iconoclast, television presenter and Knight Bachelor Grayson Perry asks Are You Good? A question that he thinks is “fundamental to our humanity”.

“In this show I will be helping you, the audience, find out if you really are thoroughly good or maybe quite evil, but in a fun way,” says Sir Grayson. “I always start out with the assumption that people are born good and then life happens. So, let’s pull back the curtain and see where your morals truly lie.” Add audience participation and silly songs, and expect to come out with core values completely in tatters. “Is it more important to be good or to be right? It’s time to update what is a virtue and what is a sin. No biggie.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie: Pure entertainment at York Barbican on Thursday

Oh, lucky you gig of the week: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today, 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, York Barbican, October 9, 8pm

Jack Fry’s Quasimodo and Ayana Beatrice Poblete at Black Sheep Theatre Productions’s Selby Abbey photoshoot for The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, opening next week at the JoRo

Musical of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 10, 11 and 14 to 18, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

October 2, 2025October 3, 2025

Never heard of Lady Augusta Gregory? Discover her Irish plays in Griffonage Theatre’s FourTold at Theatre@41

Griffonage Theatre director Katie Leckey in rehearsal for FourTold, next week’s focus on Irish playwright Lady Augusta Gregory at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: John Stead

CHANCES are high that you will never have heard of Lady Augusta Gregory, but why not?

“Because she fell out of favour in her native Ireland,” says Griffonage Theatre co-founder and director Katie Leckey, introducing the neglected playwright from rural Roxborough, County Galway, whose work will be reactivated in FourTold, the York company’s quadruple bill of one-act comedies at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York from October 6 to 10.

Here are the facts: Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory was an Anglo-Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager, who co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, with William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn.

“She was very popular in the early 20th century, in America too, and she was especially popular in own lifetime [Augusta died on May 22 1932, aged 80]. She was still being performed regularly until the mid-1950s,” says Katie. “But her plays died out mainly because they were mostly performed at Abbey Theatre, which she’d helped to create.

James Lee, left, Helen Clarke, front, Wilf Tomlinson, back, and Katie Leckey rehearsing for Griffonage Theatre’s FourTold. Picture: John Stead

“What these plays were at the time was commercial theatre, light comedies. Irish plays written for Irish people, performed by Irish actors.

“Only one of the plays we’re doing has been toured anywhere near recently, and even that was 25 years ago, when two productions were done in England, but Coats has never been performed in the UK.”

Until now…when Griffonage Theatre, the York company with University of York roots and a flair for the madcap and macabre, will feature Coats in FourTold, an “evening of captivating storytelling, complete with a live band, performed in an intimate setting that makes you feel right at home, wherever that may be”.

FourTold will transport next week’s audiences to the quirky rural town of Baile Aighneas, or “The Town of Dispute,” as Katie calls it. “The town boasts many splendid features, as presented in the four plays: the bustling market – and all its gossip – in Spreading The News!; the restaurant where newspaper editors wine, dine and mix up their Coats; the post office, where the splendid Hyacinth Halvey has sent word he’s coming to town, and the…er, bus stop…where strangers like The Bogie Men can quickly become friends!” she says.

Ben Koch, who will play the roles of James Ryan, Hyacinth Halvey and Taig in FourTold

Lady Augusta is a passion project for Northern Irish actor, director and sound designer Katie, forming part of her now completed MA theatre studies at the University of York. “I did The Bogie Men for a closed, invitation-only exam piece, when it had never been performed in England before,” she says.

“Even in Ireland its performance record is tenuous! Only one performance in 1903. Hyacinth Harvey wasn’t done over here either, so our production marks the first time these four plays will be performed together in Great Britain.

“She didn’t start writing until her 40s and then wrote more than 60 plays, in the decades preceding the Irish Civil War – and novels too, translating Irish myths into English. She was a crazy lady! The best! Because she wrote so prolifically, I’ve taken an eclectic mix from 1903 to 1914, picking plays I liked.

“They’re tiny, tiny pieces, almost like sketches: Spreading The News! is 20-25 minutes; Coats, a rip-roaring 15 minutes; Hyacinth Halvey, 35 minutes, The Bogie Men, 25. Though she did also write Graina, a tragedy, a big epic tale, nothing like these plays, that the Abbey Theatre revived a year ago. She could do the whole scope.”

Peter Hopwood: Cast as Jack Smith In FourTold. Picture: John Stead

Katie has decided not to ‘Anglicise’ the plays “because they were written in the Irish dialect, where she listened to people on her estate in the tiny village of Gort,” she says. “I’ve been there. It’s a lovely part of the world.

“She would listen to the labourers, servants and villagers because she was very philanthropic. The dialect would die out in her lifetime. It was born out of English having to be learned because of colonisation and was spoken by villagers who didn’t speak English well and were uneducated. It’s known as Hiberno English, but more specifically it was specifically KIltartanese because Gort is in and around Kiltartan.

“The fascinating thing is that I’ve found it very similar to the Northern Irish dialect, born out of the English and the Scots coming over, so it’s similar to my own upbringing. It feels familiar to me, and rather than having Irish accents in the show, I want to do an homage to this Irish dialect, like the villagers would have had to learn.”

Katie continues: “It’s beautiful! They say things that you would never say; it’s still in English but the words are in a really fascinating order. It’s been one of the hardest things I’ve had to learn – and I had to learn both roles in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter last year!”

James Lee in the rehearsal room for Griffonage Theatre’s FourTold. Picture: John Stead

Katie’s cast of eight will be mirroring the performance manner of the Fay Brothers at the Abbey Theatre. “They trained actors in a very specific style that was expressly for Irish actors, mostly based on the voice. They focused on line delivery and rhythm, so there wasn’t much movement in the pieces – and that’s another reason her plays died out outside southern Ireland. They never even broke out into Northern Ireland.

“The other reason she died out? She’s a woman, whereas WB Yeats’s work has always been done. But we all know everyone loves an Irish accent, and just as the Fay Brothers focused on the lyrical and the voice, so I’m doing that too because it should be preserved, but I’m also focusing on the physicality of the language and the individual characters, because the characters are nuts!

“The plays are a snapshot of a very strange rural Irish town: like Royston Vasey, home of The League Of Gentlemen, meeting Father Ted.”

Griffonage Theatre presents FourTold, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Griffonage Theatre’s poster for FourTold, starring Katie Leckey as The Magistrate, Mr Hazel and Darby; Ben Koch as James Ryan, Hyacinth Halvey and Taig; Wilf Tomlinson as Shawn Early and James Quirke; Emily Carhart as Mrs Fallon and Jo Muldoon; Helen Clarke as Bartley Fallon and Mrs Delane; Grace Palma as Mrs Tarpey and Phoebe Farrell; James Lee as Mrs Tully, Mr Mineog and Miss Joyce and Peter Hopwood as Jack Smith

Griffonage Theatre: the back story

YORK theatre company with University of York origins, devoted to the madcap and the macabre, eliciting humour from the darkness. “We aim to make the strange familiar, and the familiar strange,” vows the company motto.

Founded in 2022, Fourtold is Griffonage Theatre’s fourth production, after the devised Poe In Pitch Black, Patrick Hamilton’s Rope, and Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter. “We can be found, lurking in shadows, smiling deviously, at https://www.griffonage.uk/,” says Katie.

The crew for FourTold comprises: director and sound designer, Katie Leckey; assistant director, Miles John; lighting designer and technical stage manager, Leo McCall; set designer, Wilf Tomlinson; stage manager, Zoe Deacy-Clarke; marketing manager, Jamie Williams; executive producer, Jack Mackay.

York company Griffonage Theatre in debut production Poe In Pitch Black

October 1, 2025October 3, 2025

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 43, from Gazette & Herald

Ghosts In The Garden: York’s haunted history told in 58 wire-mesh sculptures

FROM garden ghosts to a lonely whale, Toussaint’s saxophone to Kurdish comedy, Charles Hutchinson finds joy both outdoors and indoors.

Spectral trail of the season: Ghosts In The Garden, across York, until November 2

ORGANISED by York BID (Business Improvement District), the Ghosts In The Gardens sculpture trail has returned to York’s public gardens, ruins, hidden corners and green spaces in a free family event featuring 58 3D wire-mesh figures inspired by York’s haunted history.

Crafted in partnership with York creative team Unconventional Design, the translucent figures range from soldiers to monks, with ten new spectral sculptures to “ensure fresh surprises for returning visitors”.

Saxophonist Jean Toussaint: Opening autumn season at National Centre for Early Music tonight

Jazz gig of the week: Jean Toussaint, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, tonight, 7.20pm

THE Jean Toussaint Quintet – saxophonist, composer and bandleader Toussaint, pianist Emile Hinton, bassist Conor Murray, drummer Ben Brown and trumpet player Joti (CORRECT) – showcases his JT5 project’s latest album, recorded at London’s Vortex jazz club in 2024.

York Music Forum students will be working with Toussaint earlier in the day to share their work on stage from 7.20pm to 7.40pm. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Gemma Curry in Hoglets Theatre’s The Tale Of The Loneliest Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio

Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre in The Tale Of The Loneliest Whale, York Theatre Royal Studio, Friday, 4.30pm; Saturday, 11am and 2pm

Cooper Robson: Say Owt Slam special guest at The Crescent, York

Sizzling spoken words of the week: Say Owt Slam with special guest Cooper Robson, The Crescent, York, Friday, 7.30pm

HEATON slam champion and left-wing, left-field loudmouth Cooper Robson returns to York for a special-guest full set of hard-hitting poetry, raucous comedy and outlandish at The Crescent. Robson sports “more meter than Mo Farrah, more nonsense than a sapling touching Tolkien-tree”, while spouting more trash than a government coastal policy. Box office: thecrescentyork.com or on the door.

Helen Lederer: For bitter, for farce at Pocklington Arts Centre

Comedy conversation of the week: Helen Lederer, Not That I’m Bitter, Pocklington Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

FROM Absolutely Fabulous to French & Saunders, Helen Lederer has been a familiar face in British comedy since her 1980s’ alt. comedy beginnings, being “in the spotlight but not always centre stage”. Now, she brings her signature wit and warmth to page and stage as she shares stories of fame, failure, family and finding your voice when the odds are stacked against you in a man’s world.

Expect sharp observations, outrageous anecdotes and a refreshingly candid take on everything from mental health to midlife reinvention, in conversation with presenter and podcaster Johnny Ianson, as Lederer discusses her memoir Not That I’m Bitter as part of East Riding Libraries Festival of Words. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The Creepy Boys: Teenage birthday party. Picture: Nick Robertson Photography

“Bizarre comedy with just a splash of the occult”: The Creepy Boys, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday, 8pm

THE Creepy Boys, Canadian creators of cult-smash Slugs and 2025 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominees, present their existential self-titled show – and you’re invited as they throw their 13th birthday party. Expect games. Gifts. Possibly Satan. Probably Cake.

Combining 2000s’ sexy songs and dances, satanic rituals and Willem Dafoe, horny little boys Sam Kruger and S.E. Grummett will do whatever it takes to make their birthday dreams come true, even re-enacting their own birth, while interrogating the trappings of millennial nostalgia, before driving the show off a wild horror-comedy cliff. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Kae Kurd in What’s O’Kurd: That’s what’s occurring at Pocklington Arts Centre on Saturday

Comedy gig of the week: Kae Kurd: What’s O’Kurd, Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 8pm

KAE Kurd, British-Kurdish stand-up comedian, Ain’t Got A Clue podcaster and lead writer and voice of ITV’s dating show Loaded In Paradise, brings his new tour, What’s O’Kurd, to Pocklington.

Born Korang Abdulla in Saqqez, Iran, and now based in South London, Kae performed his debut show Kurd Your Enthusiasm at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, since when he has toured Spoken Kurd Tour in 2021 and Kurd Immunity in 2023. He has written for Cunk & Other Humans (BBC), Have I Got News For You (BBC) and A League of Their Own (Sky One), as well as for the i newspaper and Total Politics, and has appeared on Mock The Week and Celebrity Masterchef. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Our Biggest Ever Open Mic: Saturday’s evening of anything-goes entertainment at Milton Rooms, Malton

Open opportunity of the week: Our Biggest Ever Open Mic, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 7pm

THE stage is all yours on Saturday at the Milton Rooms’ “Biggest Ever Open Mic evening” for all manner of performers. Admission is free and doors and the bar will be open at 6.30pm. Tech support will be provided. Go for it! For more information, email info@themiltonrooms.com.

Martin Ledger of Alchemy Live: Finding himself in Dire Straits in a good way at Helmsley Arts Centre

Tribute show of the week: Alchemy Live, The Music Of Dire Straits, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

FORMED by life-long Dire Straits fans and full-time musicians Martin Ledger and Neil Scott, Alchemy Live announced their first show for Friday the 13th in 2022 in York, duly selling out there and around Yorkshire and moving on to theatre shows from January 2023.

Fast forward to 2025 and the launch of an expanded line-up, featuring pedal steel and saxophone, enabling them to tackle the huge production of Dire Straits’ final album On Every Street and the resultant live record On The Night. Every song choice is taken from a specific live performance in Dire Straits’ history, for example the show-opening Money For Nothing from Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985, “with every nuance of Mark Knopfler’s playing technique followed faithfully” throughout. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Pixies: Playing York for first time in 40-year career next May

Gig announcement of the week: Pixies, York Barbican, May 20 2026

CELEBRATING 40 years since their 1986 formation in Boston, Massachusetts, Pixies will head out on their Pixies 40 worldwide tour next year. The British and European leg will open with their long-overdue York debut on May 20 at York Barbican.

Founding members Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering will be touring with bassist Emma Richardson as they head to the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Tickets for their only Yorkshire concert are on sale at bnds.us/ziwfqx or yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/pixies.

September 20, 2025September 26, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond when seeking cultural nourishment. Here’s Hutch’s List No 42, from The York Press

York oboe player Desmond Clarke: Performing on Navigators Art’s YO Underground #5 bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse

FOOD for thought for heading out and about as York Food & Drink Festival opens and Inspector Morse is on the case in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations.

Navigators Art presents YO Underground #5, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 7.30pm

YORK arts collective Navigators Art’s regular fulcrum of left-field new music, words and performance returns this weekend with a focus on ethnic instruments, acoustic-electronic improvisation, words and guitar-based fusion, plus passionate new songwriting.

Expect bold, beautiful and adventurous sounds from flautist Carmen Troncoso, York oboe player Desmond Clarke and Osc~, No Spinoza and a new York ‘supergroup’, the NSC Sound Union, combining members of Soma Crew and Namke Communications. Admission is £6 at www.ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance) or £10 on the door.

Sam Blythe: Taking on a multitude of roles in George Orwell’s Animal Farm at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Solo show of the week: Sam Blythe in Animal Farm, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 7.30pm

CELEBRATING 70 years of its publication on August 17 1945 and 30 since the first performance of Guy Masterson’s solo adaptation of George’s Orwell’s satirical allegorical dystopian novella, Sam Blythe takes up Masterson’s mantle on stage.

Bringing all of Orwell’s multiple characters to vivid life, Blythe transforms into Snowball, Napoleon, Squealer, Boxer, Clover, Mollie, Benjamin, Muriel, the Sheep, Dogs, Cows, Hens and the Cat in a performance designed to shock, enchant, bewitch and bewilder, ringing out Orwell’s prescient warning that politicians through the ages, and of all creeds and colours, will often let power corrupt them. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Rebecca Vaughan’s Lady Susan in Dyad Productions’ Austen’s Women: Lady Susan. Picture: Seamus Flanagan

Magnificently crafted tale of manipulation and manners of the week: Dyad Productions in Austen’s Women: Lady Susan, York Theatre Royal Studio, today, 2pm; Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 7.30pm

DYAD Productions return with a new solo comedy show, Jane Austen’s 1794 tale of manipulation and manners. Directed by Andrew Margerison, company regular Rebecca Vaughan plays devil-may-care widow Lady Susan, oppressed, rebellious daughter Frederica, long-suffering sister-in-law Catherine, family matriarch Mrs De Courcy and insouciant best friend Alicia.

At the vanguard of Vaughan’s wickedly humorous adaptation is the charming, scheming and witty Lady Susan, taking on society and making it her own, but has this coquette met her match? Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Skosh chef-proprietor Neil Bentinck: Cookery demonstration at St Crux Hall on September 27 at 1pm at York Food & Drink Festival

Festival of the week: York Food & Drink Festival, cooking until September 28

HIGHLIGHTS of this autumn’s York Food & Drink Festival include 70 street food and produce stands in Parliament Street; the Entertainment Marquee on Parliament Street, serving a bill of Live for St Leonard’s Hospice music acts; more live music in St Sampson’s Square, and demonstrations, events, tastings, and sampling at St Crux Hall.

Further events will be two taste trails; the Food Factory in St Crux Hall and Museum Gardens; the Pork Pie competition in Bedern Hall; Curry & Comedy at the NCEM; Yahala Mataam’s refugee pop-up restaurant night and cookery school; Tang’s festival debut; Jorvik Viking Centre’s activities with an historic twist and the Meet The Makers drinks fair. For the full festival programme, head to: yorkfoodfestival.com.

One of Simon Baxter’s photographs from All The Wood’s A Stage, his joint exhibition with Joe Cornish at Nunnington Hall. Picture: Simon Baxter

Ryedale exhibition launch of the week: All The Wood’s A Stage, Nunnington Hall, near York, from today to March 29 2026

ALL The Wood’s A Stage will continue the 2022 showcase Woodland Sanctuary, exhibited originally at the Moors Centre in Danby. This latest chapter features predominantly new photographs that celebrate the beauty and vital significance of trees, woodlands and forests across the UK.

Photographers Joe Cornish and Simon Baxter depict trees as silent performers on nature’s stage, encouraging us to observe, listen and reflect. Trees provide joy, peace and inspiration, being lungs of the Earth, guardians of biodiversity and a crucial part of our mental and physical well-being. Through changing seasons, they symbolise life, death and renewal. Tickets: nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/nunnington-hall.

The poster for The Return Of The Legends, featuring Strictly Come Dancing alumni Brendan Cole, James Jordan, Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Ian Waites, at York Barbican

Dance show of the week: The Return Of The Legends, starring Brendan, James, Pasha, Vincent and Ian, York Barbican, today, 7.30pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing alumni Brendan Cole, James Jordan, Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Ian Waite follow up 2024’s Legends Of The Dancefloor with new Latin, tango, rumba and ballroom routines and more Strictly stories in The Return Of The Legends. Joined by a supporting cast, they deliver a night of dancing, camaraderie, music and laughter. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Robert Took, Georgina Liley, Catherine Warnock and James McLean in Mikron Theatre’s Hush Hush!, on tour at Clements Hall, York

Touring play of the week: Mikron Theatre in Hush Hush!, Clements Hall, York, Sunday, 4pm

IN a daring theatrical mission, Marsden’s Mikron Theatre Company infiltrates the clandestine world of wartime code-breaking in Lucie Raine’s Hush Hush!, exposing the vital contributions of the unsung heroes of Bletchley Park’s Hut 3, whose ingenuity and unwavering resolve helped secure victory.

Peggy Valentine arrives at Bletchley in 1940, 18 years old, headstrong and gifted. Finding herself in a world of boffins, soldiers and debutantes, Peggy must shoulder the burden of high-pressure war work while navigating a new world of feuds, friendships and growing up in a frame of absolute secrecy. Mikron’s crack team of actor-musicians, Georgina Liley, Robert Took, Catherine Warnock and familiar face James McLean, blends original songs, live music and compelling storytelling. Box office for returns only: 01484843701 or email admin@mikron.org.uk.

Tom Chambers as Detective Chief Inspector Morse in the first Inspector Morse original stage play, House Of Ghosts, at Grand Opera House, York

Murder mystery of the week: Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts, Grand Opera House, York, September 23 to 27, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

BIRMINGHAM Repertory Theatre and Simon Friend Entertainment are touring the Inspector Morse franchise’s debut original stage play, House Of Ghosts, penned by Alma Cullen, directed by Anthony Banks and starring Tom Chambers.

A chilling mystery unfolds when a young actress dies suddenly on stage during a performance, prompting Detective Chief Inspector Morse to embark on a gripping investigation. What begins as a suspicious death inquiry takes a darker turn when the legendary inspector, in tandem with Detective Sergeant Lewis, uncovers a connection to sinister events in his own past, 25 years earlier. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Kieran Hodgson: Voicing his thoughts on the USA

Comedy gig of the week: Kieran Hodgson: Voice Of America, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 26, 8pm

AMERICA. What happened, man? Ever since he was a little loser kid in a little loser country (yes, England), Holmfirth-born Kieran Hodgson has been putting on an American accent and dreaming a big American dream.

Nowadays, however, it’s not so simple. Didn’t America go completely bananas? Didn’t he get too old for dreaming? And when Hollywood comes calling, does Kieran actually sound American after all? Here he assesses how a scared world feels about the USA and impersonates a bunch of old prospectors and former Presidents. Box office for returns only: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The horror, the horror: Dead Northern returns to City Screen Picturehouse

Film event of the week: Dead Northern presents The Festival of Horror, City Screen Picturehouse, York, September 26 to 28

IN “the world’s most haunted city”, Dead Northern hosts three days of film and live events, taking in music, social activities, food, drink and merchandise. Friday Frights opens with a 10.30am showcase of student short films and videos, followed by UK premiere of Sun at noon with a Q&A.

The 2pm short film showcase focuses on Teeth, Claws, Tentacles and Clowns. At 4pm the Dead Talks talk reveals Dracula’s mysterious connection to York under the splendid title of Who Are You Calling A Count?! A mystery Dracula classic film re-surfaces at 5pm and the UK premiere of Hellhouse LLC: Lineage is booked in for 7.30pm. The night concludes with the Welcome Social & Quiz with the Independent Horror Society.

Saturday Screams kicks off with the Flesh & Bone short film showcase at 10.30am, followed by the world premiere of A Mother’s Recall at noon and the Twisted Tales short film showcase at 1.45pm.

The 3.30pm UK film premiere will be Home Education, concluding with a Q&A, and the 5.30pm classic feature will be the 40^th anniversary release of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.

7.30pm’s Signature Live Event will be Spirits By Spirits; the 8.45pm feature film will be The Beast Of Riverside Hollow, with a Q&A, and the night ends with the VIP Awards Party at 11pm.

Day three, Sunday Shock The 28^th, launches with the 10.30am classic feature, 1981’s Evil Dead, followed by the UK premiere of Nightfall – A Paranormal Investigation at noon and the Spectres & Shadows short film showcase at 1.30pm.

The UK premiere of Tabula Rasa will be shown at 2.45pm; the 4.15pm screening of He Kills At Night will include a Q&A, and Inside The Mind will be the theme of the 6pm short film showcase. In Dead Talks Part II at 7.30pm, the Independent Horror Society welcomes special guests for When Horror Struck Again, a discussion on underrated sequels.

The festival concludes with a classic feature, 1987’s Evil Dead II. For more details on Dead Northern Part VI 2025 Horror Film Festival, visit deadnorthern.co.uk/dead-northern-2025-horror-film-festival.

In Focus: York Printmakers’ 10th Anniversary Handmade Print Fair, York Cemetery, today and tomorrow

Russell Hughes discussing monoprinting. Picture: Chris Kendall Photography

THIS weekend York Printmakers celebrates a decade of creativity, collaboration and craftsmanship with its 10th Annual Print Fair, designed for lovers of original art and handmade processes.

This year’s fair reflects the group’s continuing mission: to keep traditional printmaking alive, accessible and valued.

Over the past decade, York Printmakers has grown into a vibrant collective of more than 40 artists, all committed to the authenticity of printmaking. The fair showcases a wide range of techniques — from linocut to collagraph, screen print to woodcut — all created by hand.

“People are often surprised to learn the difference between a reproduction and a handmade print,” says founding member Sally Clarke. “At our fair, you get to see the blocks, the plates, the tools — and meet the people who made them.

“In a world where everything is easily copied, our fair champions the original: prints made by hand, with care and intention.”

Bridget Hunt describing how to make a collograph plate. Picture: Chris Kendall Photography

This year’s milestone event reflects on ten years of artistic evolution, celebrating the unique voices of long-standing members while championing the newer members to the collective: artists whose fresh perspectives and experimental approaches are helping to shape the future of the craft.

“It’s always a pleasure to welcome new members, especially those just discovering printmaking or beginning their creative journey,” says long-standing member Russell Hughes. “They bring energy and new ideas that inspire even the most experienced among us. And in return, we’re able to share knowledge and techniques that have stood the test of time. That exchange is what keeps the group dynamic and evolving.”

Visitors can explore a rich variety of work, meet the makers and buy original prints directly from the artists.

York Printmakers’ 10th Anniversary Handmade Print Fair, Chapel and Harriet Room, York Cemetery, Cemetery Road, York, September 20 and 21, 10am to 5pm. Free entry.

York Printmakers’ poster for this weekend’s print fair at York Cemetery

September 9, 2025September 9, 2025

REVIEW: Wharfemede Productions in Musicals Across The Multiverse, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York ****

Emma Burke’s wartime nurse performing Anthem, from Chess

“THE show’s concept is playful, radical too, and has the potential to be rolled out again,” predicted your reviewer, when encountering June 2023’s “out of this world” Musicals In The Multiverse.

Sure enough, here comes the bigger, bolder sequel, still with a “big cast, bags of energy and enthusiasm, and a fun idea for a show”, still with Helen “Bells” Spencer as director and Matthew Clare in charge of the remarkable musical arrangements as songs are freed from the chains of their usual presentation.

The company and venue has changed, from the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company and art deco Joseph Rowntree Theatre to Spencer and Nick Sephton’s Wetherby-based Wharfemede Productions and black-box Theatre@41, Monkgate.

The show title has replaced ‘In’ with the broader-sounding ‘Across’ to reflect an even more expansive multiverse: alternative worlds where musical favourites and newer works are turned on their head, taking on a new life with a change of gender, era, key or musical style, as musical director James Ball and his band, out of view behind curtains but worthy of a standing ovation in their own right, deliver Matthew Clare’s diverse, dazzling arrangements with such brio.

Nick Sephton and Helen “Bells” Spencer’s tender rendition of I Don’t Need A Roof

Attending Monday night’s dress rehearsal, the technical rough edges with the projection would be ironed out by tonight’s opening show, and likewise Bells Spencer was keeping herself busy in taking notes, and even adjusting actors’ stage positions mid-number to achieve the right balance. Choreographer Connie Howcroft, when not performing, kept an eye on the big numbers too.

Musicals Across The Universe sits inside an end-on set design, usually bare to enable use of the full stage, even the stairway, with the occasional addition of chairs too, while projections, whether of a blur of Fake News or images of wartime Poland, accompany assorted numbers. Costume changes are frequent, sometimes amusing, often witty, always striking.

Act One opens with the full company finding its voice in Facade, a number from Jekyll And Hyde that is the essence of putting on a front, but with the truth still bursting through. As Long As He Needs Me, Nancy’s troublesome song from Oliver!, becomes more mournful, less desperate, in Jai Rowley’s interpretation.

The Place Where The Lost Things Go, from Mary Poppins Returns, is transformed into a children’s song, all the more moving in Matthew Warry’s performance, supported by Laertes Singhateh and Emelia Charlton-Matthews.

Lauren Charlton-Matthews: Outstanding rendition of Dear Bill from Operation Mincemeat. Picture: Simon Trow

Anthem, from Chess, takes on a Jazz Age air in Emma Burke’s rendition; Lauren Charlton-Matthews chose Dear Bill, from the Grand Opera House-bound Operation Mincement for her solo number, duly delivering the show’s best storytelling singing.

Go The Distance/Defying Gravity, from Hercules/Wicked, vie for centre stage in a mash-up for David Copley-Martin, Emily Hardy, Naomi Mothersille and Zander Fick; partners Spencer and Sephton bring tender romance to Big Fish’s I Don’t Need A Roof and Tess Ellis revels in the stark solo spotlight in Miss Saigon’s Why God? Why?

Two Act One favourites follow in quick succession, first Rosy Rowley’s lonesome Mr Cellophane, from Chicago, her face marked by a painted tear, accompanied by the Dance Core in white masks with crimson lips and matching dark tears.

Listen, from Dreamgirls, branches out from dialogue to Jai Rowley expressing himself in British Sign Language, learned expressly for this performance, to be interpreted in song by James Ball as Matthew Warry takes over on piano.

Exchanging sign language: James Ball, left, and Jai Rowley in Listen

After the men-in-black smooth chops of When She Loved Me, from Toy Story, you will go potty for Connie Howcroft’s polka-dotty reinvention of Friend Like Me from Aladdin, with her Dance Core in tow.

Mickey Moran, outstanding in the 2023 show, comes to the fore in Act Two’s opening Queen Medley from We Will Rock You, both on lead vocals as bravura as Freddie Mercury and on guitar too. The show must go on, and indeed does with Naomi Mothersille leading Make Them Hear You from Ragtime.

Richard Bayton and James Ball address songs to each other as gay lovers on the path to separation, first in Bayton’s confessional Just Not Now, from I Love You Because, then Ball, wrought with tragedian drama in Abba’s The Winner Takes It All, from Mamma Mia!, the show’s outstanding solo turn.

It’s Never That Easy/I’ve Been Here Before, from Closer Than Ever, find Spencer, Howcroft, Emily Hardy and Naomi Mothersille in harmony; Tess Ellis, in cream, stands out from the crowd in the heartfelt Someone Like You, from Jekyll & Hyde, and Ben Holeyman does likewise in Gypsy’s Don’t Rain On My Parade. Take note of Kirsty Barnes, notebook in hand, in Santa Fe, from Newsies.

Life is a Cabaret for Zander Fick, surrounded by the Dance Core in Musicals Across The Multiverse. Picture: Simon Trow

Zander Fick, fresh from playing drag star Loco Chanel in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, dons fishnets, shiny red Latex top and matching high heels and lipstick, to darken Sally Bowles’s Cabaret, from Cabaret, into being more in keeping with the Emcee.

Bayton and Ellis, Holeyman and Barnes play two couples in declamatory tandem in the mash-up of Million Dreams and How Far I’ll Go from The Greatest Showman and Moana, and mother and child partnerships, Spencer and Singtaheh, Rowley times two and Charlton-Matthews a deux, express the bond movingly in Mamma Mia’s Slipping Through My Fingers. Abbie Law savours the last solo showcase in Shouldn’t I Be Less In Love With You, from I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.

The full company assembles for Blame It On The Boogie, from MJ The Musical, a celebratory finale led flamboyantly by Rosy Rowley and Mickey Moran that has everyone dancing to the Multiverse max.

Wharfemede Productions present Musicals Across The Multiverse, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 10 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Rosy Rowley. front, left, and Mickey Moran, front, right, lead the outbreak of dancing in Blame It On The Boogie, the finale to Musicals Across The Multiverse

September 6, 2025September 6, 2025

More Things To Do in York & beyond when willow whispers and cinema pops outdoors. Hutch’s List No.39, from The York Press

Willow artist Laura Ellen Bacon in the saloon at her Whispers Of The Wilderness exhibition at Beningbrough Hall. Picture: Anthony Chappel-Ross

WILLOW sculptures, outdoor cinema, musical premieres and the Yellow Brick Road are beckoning Charles Hutchinson.

Exhibition opening of the week: Laura Ellen Bacon, Whispers Of The Wilderness, Exploring Wilderness Gardens, Beningbrough Hall, near York, until April 12 2026, Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm

WHISPERS Of The Wilderness brings together contemporary large-scale willow sculptures by Laura Ellen Bacon, historic pieces from across the National Trust collection to showcase Wilderness Gardens through time and a new drawing studio designed by artist Tanya Raabe-Webber.

Complemented by a new soundscape, audio chair, sketches of the developing sculptures and more, the exhibition is a sensory experience across the first-floor Reddihough Galleries and Great Hall. Tickets: nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/beningbrough.

Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You, Sunday’s screening at Picturehouse Outdoor Cinema at York Museum Gardens

Film event of the week: City Screen Picturehouse presents Picturehouse Outdoor Cinema, York Museum Gardens, York, Stop Making Sense (PG), tonight, 6.30pm; 10 Things I Hate About You (12A), Sunday, 6.30pm

JONATHAN Demme’s Stop Making Sense, capturing David Byrne’s Talking Heads in perpetual motion at Hollywood’s Panatges Theatre in December 1983, re-emerges in a 40th anniversary restoration of “the greatest concert film of all time”.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Allison Janney, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger star in 10 Things I Hate About You, wherein Cameron falls for Bianca on the first day of school, but not only his uncool status stops him from asking her out. Blankets, cushions and small camping chairs are allowed. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema/venue/york-museum-gardens.

Hal Cruttenden: Reflecting on the insanity of modern politics at Burning Duck Comedy Club. Picture: Matt Crockett

“Take no prisoners” gig of the week: Hal Cruttenden Can Dish It Out But Can’t Take It, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 8pm

HAL Cruttenden promises to stick it to ‘The Man’, as long as ‘The Man’ does not stick it back to him. Expect hard-hitting pontificating on middle-aged dating, social media, the insanity of modern politics and his daughters loving him but not respecting him. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Artist Kerry Ann Moffat with her oil painting Sunlight Catching Wooden Sculpture at the Created In York pop-up gallery in High Petergate, York

Pop-up art space of the week: Created In York, hosted by Blank Canvas by Skippko charity, 22 High Petergate, York, 10.30am to 5pm, Thursdays to Saturdays; 11am to 4pm, Sundays

CHAMPIONING change through creativity, York art charity Skippko’s rolling programme of three-week Created In York shows is running in High Petergate until December 2025 in tandem with York Conservation Trust. On show until September 14 are oil paintings by Kerry Ann Moffat and linocuts and woodblock prints by Rachel Holborow.

York RI Golden Rail Band: Performing Sounding Brass and Voices with York RI Golden Railway Band. Picture: Keith Meadley

Musical partnership of the week: Sounding Brass and Voices, York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir and York RI Golden Rail Band, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm

YORK Philharmonic Male Voice Choir and York RI Golden Rail Band reunite for a fourth joint concert in a tender and thrilling pairing of brass and voices, celebrating 100 years of music.

“From romantic film music to toe-tapping hits, there will be something for everyone,” says Golden Rail Band conductor Nick Eastwood. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Musicals Across The Multiverse choreographer Connie Howcroft, right, working on moves with Zander Fick, Ben Holeyman, Abbie Law and Lauren Charlton-Matthews

Interdimensional journey of the week: Wharfemede Productions in Musicals Across The Multiverse, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 10 to 13, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

DIRECTOR Helen “Bells” Spencer and musical director Matthew Clare follow up 2023’s Musicals In The Multiverse 2023 with another blend of iconic musical theatre hits reconfigured with surprising twists.

“Think unexpected style swaps, minor to major key switches, gender reversals, era-bending reinterpretations, genre mash-ups and more,” says Bells.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Debbie Isitt’s cast in rehearsal for the world premiere of Military Wives – The Musical at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Danny With A Camera

World premiere of the week: Military Wives – The Musical, York Theatre Royal, September 10 to 27, times vary

YORK Theatre Royal stages the world premiere of writer-director Debbie Isitt’s musical based on the 2019 film, rooted in Gareth Malone’s The Choir: Military Wives project.

Faced with husbands and partners being away at war, the women are isolated, bored and desperate to take their minds off feelings of impending doom. Enter Olive to help them form a choir. Cue a joyous celebration of female empowerment and friendship, courage and ‘unsung’ heroes. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Libby Greenhill’s Medium Alison, left, Hattie Wells’s Young Alison and Claire Morley’s Alison in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Fun Home

York premiere of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Fun Home, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, September 10 to 19, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees

ROBERT Readman directs the York premiere of Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Krow’s five-time Tony Award winner, based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel.

When her volatile father dies unexpectedly, Alison (Claire Morley) recalls how his temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, she relives her unique childhood at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her sexuality and the looming, unanswerable questions of her father’s hidden desires. Box office: ticketsourse.co.uk/pickmeuptheatrecom.

Rob Newman: Wondering where we are going in Where The Wild Things Were at The Crescent

The future, now: Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Rob Newman, Where The Wild Things Were, The Crescent, York, September 11, 7.30pm

ROB Newman wants to discuss where we are and where we are going, from future cities and philistine film directors to Dorothy Parker’s Multiverse Diaries. Throw in Pythagorean gangsters, intellectual bingo callers and a crazy character called Arlo for a comedic “tour-de-force utterly unlike anything else you will ever see anywhere else”. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Mick Tickner: Headlining the Funny Fridays bill at Patch

Comedy gathering of the week: Funny Fridays, at Patch, Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, September 12, 7.30pm

AFTER May and June sell-outs and a summer break, Funny Fridays returns for a third night of stand-up hosted by promoter and comedian Katie Lingo. On the £10 bill are 2023 Hull Comedian of the Year Hannah Margaret, Jamie Clinton, Kerris Gibson, James Earl Marsters and headliner Mick Tickner. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk/e/funny-fridays-at-patch-tickets-1473792325519?aff=oddtdtcreator.

Erin Childs’ Dorothy with Toto (Freddie) in York Stage’s The Wizard Of Oz

Ruby slippers of the week: York Stage in The Wizard Of Oz, Grand Opera House, York, September 12 to 20, times vary

UNDER Nik Briggs’s direction, York Stage skips down the Yellow Brick Road as Erin Childs’ Dorothy, Toto and her friends, the Scarecrow (Flo Poskitt), Tin Man (Stu Hutchinson), and Cowardly Lion (Finn East), journey to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard (Ian Giles).

In navigating the enchanting landscape of Oz, Dorothy is watched closely by Glinda, the Good Witch (Carly Morton) as the Wicked Witch of the West (Emily Alderson) plots to thwart Dorothy’s quest and reclaim the magical ruby slippers. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

September 2, 2025September 2, 2025

Theatre@41, Monkgate, lines up autumn of Edinburgh Fringe comedy and theatre hits

Hal Cruttenden: Dishing it out at Theatre@41, Monkgate, but can he take it?

THE best of the Edinburgh Fringe, from stand-up comedy to new theatre, is bound for Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, this autumn.

Comedy performers will be led off by Have I Got News For You and Would I Lie To You panellist Hal Cruttenden in Hal Cruttenden Can Dish It Out But Can’t Take It on September 6, followed by four-time Edinburgh Award nominee Kieran Hodgson in Voice Of America on September 27, when he explores how a scared world feels about the USA and impersonates a bunch of old prospectors and former Presidents.

Creepy Boys were nominated for this year’s Edinburgh Comedy Award for their show Slugs. Now they bring their original madcap self-titled show to York on October 3. John Robertson Plays With His Audience, on November 16, is the latest show from the cult Dark Room host, packed with unpredictable improv and crowd work.

Kieran Hodgson: Voicing fears prompted by the USA

Innovative theatre comes in the form of a one-man Animal Farm, solo adaptation of Orwell’s prophetic novel, performed by Sam Blythe on September 20.

Theatre@41 chair Alan Park says: “Prior to the Edinburgh Fringe, we welcomed a number of stand-ups previewing their shows in the Halfway To Edinburgh season in July, including eventual Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Sam Nicoresti, and it’s great to see more of these artists having success at the Fringe.

“The ethos of the Edinburgh Fringe resonates with our own belief in supporting new and emerging performers, so we’re really pleased to be welcoming these brilliant shows to our theatre this autumn.”

John Robertson: Playing with his York audience on November 16 Picture: Mark Dawson

Running from July 13 to 19, Halfway To Edinburgh featured Sam Nicoresti, Josie Long, Lulu Popplewell, Molly McGuinness, Phil Ellis, Hayley Ellis, Susan Riddell, Kate Dolan, Barmby Moor surrealist Rob Auton and Chloe Petts, plus Nina Gilligan in her 2024 Fringe show
Goldfish.

“We were absolutely thrilled to bring such a fantastic calibre of comedic talent to York with Halfway To Edinburgh,” says Alan. “The festival was a unique opportunity for York audiences to experience the excitement and innovation of the Edinburgh Fringe without leaving the city. It was the perfect chance to see some incredible shows before they hit the big stage in Scotland.”

Tickets for the autumn season are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

August 28, 2025August 29, 2025

What happens when iconic songs collide with parallel realities? Find out in Wharfemede Productions’ Musicals Across The Multiverse at Theatre@41 Monkgate

Wharfemede Productions artistic director Helen “Bells” Spencer, right, leading a rehearsal for Musicals Across The Multiverse

THE musical multiverse is on the move but with the visionary creative team of director Helen “Bells” Spencer and co-creator and musical director Matthew Clare still at the helm.

After the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company staged Musicals In The Multiverse as its “most ambitious concert production ever” in June 2023, now Helen’s Wetherby-founded company, Wharfemede Productions, takes up the multiverse mantle for Musicals Across The Multiverse, featuring a stellar cast of performers drawn from across Yorkshire’s vibrant talent pool.

Promising to be “even more inventive and boundary-pushing”, this out-of-this-universe sequel will take over Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from September 10 to 13, with its “nod to the Marvel franchise and the Spiderverse”.

“Musicals Across The Multiverse is a bold and exhilarating theatrical experience that reimagines your favourite musical theatre numbers like never before,” says Wharfemede Productions artistic director Bells, whose daily diary combines being a consultant psychiatrist with motherhood and her multiple theatrical pursuits.

“Step into a multiverse where the classics you know and love still exist, but not as you remember them. You’ll hear the songs that you know and love, but with their traditional presentation turned on its head, so they’re different but still recognisable.

Musical director Matthew Clare, right, in rehearsal with Wharfemede Productions cast members for Musicals Across The Multiverse

“Think unexpected style swaps, minor to major key switches, surprising gender reversals, era-bending reinterpretations, genre mash-ups and more, offering audiences a witty, heartfelt journey through the many worlds of the multiverse.

“Inventive, genre-defying and packed with surprises, Musicals Across The Multiverse is a celebration of creativity and theatrical flair that promises to delight, challenge and thrill audiences. This is musical theatre recharged, remixed and ready to take you on an interdimensional journey you won’t forget.”

Bell is “absolutely thrilled” to be working with Matthew again. “He’s incredibly talented,” she enthuses. “Collaborating with him is always a joy. He’s not only a brilliant musician and composer, but also an endlessly inspiring creative partner. His ability to take an idea and elevate it into something truly original is nothing short of magic.

“Our friendship and shared passion for musical theatre have been at the heart of developing this piece. We both love exploring the ‘what ifs’ of familiar stories and pushing the boundaries of traditional performance. We’re not afraid to take risks, flip conventions on their head, and do things a little differently – and that spirit of playful reinvention is what Musicals Across The Multiverse is all about.”

In Bells’ cast will be Abbie Law; Ben Holeyman; choreographer Connie Howcroft; David Copley-Martin; Ellie Carrier; Emilia Charlton-Mathews; Emily Hardy; Emma Burke; Jack Fry; Jai Rowley and James Ball.

Musicals Across The Multiverse choreographer Connie Howcroft, right, working on moves with Zander Fick, Ben Holeyman, Abbie Law and Lauren Charlton-Matthews

So too will Kirsty Barnes; Laertes Singhateh; Lauren Charlton-Mathews; Matthew Warry; Mickey Moran; Naomi Mothersille; Nick Sephton; Richard Bayton; Rosy Rowley; Tess Ellis; Zander Fick and Bells herself.

“Our cast is nothing short of phenomenal,” she says. “This time we have multiple new additions from the production of Les Miserables I did this summer at Leeds Grand Theatre, and it means we now have a lovely mix of people from York and Leeds, who haven’t done a show together before, making it a really unique mix.

“They’ve thrown themselves into this wild, imaginative world with energy, humour and heart. Rehearsals have been full of laughter, creativity, and genuine moments of magic. Watching this show come to life with such an amazing group of performers from across Yorkshire has been a total privilege.

“Hopefully this format is something we can continue to grow. We’re now talking with The Carriageworks about taking shows there as well as to York.”

Bells and Matthew’s original concept for the parallel universes of this musical multiverse emerged from a conversation among York’s musical theatre performers about songs they would love to sing but would never have the opportunity to do so in a fully staged musical production, on account of, for example, the gender or the age of the character in the original setting.

“This is musical theatre recharged, remixed and ready to take you on an interdimensional journey you won’t forget,” says director Helen Spencer

“We pride ourselves in Wharfemede Productions on being an inclusive and welcoming artistic space for all,” says Bells. “The concept for this show allows our wonderfully talented and diverse cast to perform songs that explore and celebrate who they are, to push some of the traditional musical theatre boundaries and ultimately honour some of the best musical songs ever written.

“What’s been really lovely, working with Matthew, is how we can not only swap the gender in a song but also the feel of a song or the genre to match the gender swap. There isn’t a single song in this show that’s in its original format, which is an amazing challenge, but Matthew is such a genius in doing the musical arrangements.

“Santa Fe, from Disney’s Newsies, for example, was made famous by Jeremy Jordan in the Broadway musical, but is now being sung by Kirsty Barnes, who has just starred as Sister Mary Robert, the postulant in Sister Act, with LIDOS at The Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds.

“Matthew describes the arrangement as ‘written in the style of Chopin’s Preludes’, so it’s much more lyrical with piano and cello that really changes the song.”

Reflecting on lessons learnt from the first iteration of the musical multiverse, Bells says: “The changes made to songs really excited everyone, and we’re always looking to push things further, like in the mash-ups, where we’ll have A Million Dreams, from The Greatest Showman, pared with How Far I’ll Go, from Disney’s Moana, and Defying Gravity, from Wicked, with Go The Distance, from Hercules.

Hands across the multiverse in the Long Marston Village Hub rehearsal room

“We got really good feedback on the close-harmony singing last time, singing that’s challenging but really lovely to do, so we’ll be doing more of that , and we’ll also have maybe four more solos than before as we had so many people auditioning and the standard was so high.

“I’m also really excited about using British Sign Language again, as we did last time with Jack Fry for Cell Block Tango, from Chicago. Now we’ll be using it from Listen from Dreamgirls.

“Another highlight will be Zander Fick singing Sally Bowles’s Cabaret in a darker, more modern male version, where there will be no jazz hands to be seen.”

Among further “very different” interpretations will be Connie Howcroft’s rendition of the Genie’s Friend Like Me from Disney’s Aladdin. “It’s very clearly not a cartoon and not male!” says Bells.

“We also have a couple of major-to-minor key swaps that turn positive songs into ‘villain’ songs. Don’t Rain On My Parade is so well known that changing the key makes it so different and so challenging to sing – and it’s not only a genre swap but a gender swap too. It’s now more of an aggressive, very funky song, performed by Ben Holeyman.

The Wharfemede Productions cast for Musicals Across The Multiverse

“Emma Burke, who played Cosette in Les Miserables this summer, will do a very moving version of Anthem from Chess, in a gender and genre swap, highlighting the role of the Women Land’s Army in the Second World War.”

Look out too for three sets of mothers and children – Bells and Laertes Singhateh, Rosy and Jai Rowley and Emilia and Lauren Charlton-Mathews – singing Slipping Through My Fingers from Mamma Mia!

“It”s lovely for us to sing such a gorgeous song together,” says Bells. “Every mother feels that sense of pride yet loss at their children growing up.”

Matthew Warry will join Laertes, Jai and Lauren in The Place Where The Lost Things Go – “the Emily Blunt one” – from Mary Poppins Returns. “It’s a switch from Mary Poppins singing it, so now we have children singing an adult’s song,” says Bells.

As rehearsals take shape at Long Marston Village Hub, Bells concludes: “We can’t wait to share this unique, genre-bending show with you. Come and see what happens when musical theatre gets turned on its head – and support community theatre at its most daring, dynamic and joy-filled.”

Wharfemede Productions present Musicals Across The Multiverse, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 10 to 13, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Out of this universe: Wharfemede Productions’ poster for Musicals Across The Multiverse

July 16, 2025July 16, 2025

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 31, from Gazette & Herald

Dr Adam Parker, curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust, holding the Thor’s Hammer Pendant at the Viking North exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum, York

VIKING treasures, street art indoors, Fringe comedy previews and Ryedale Festival’s Austen celebration bring out the summer smiles in Charles Hutchinson.

Museum launch of the week: Viking North, Yorkshire Museum, York

VIKING North is filled with magnificent objects, many unseen for generations and others that have never been on public display, adding up to “the best collection of Viking finds to be shown outside London” as these Viking treasures reveal the North’s power base, wealth and skills.

Telling the story of the Viking Age in the North of England from AD866 to 1066, the exhibition is underpinned by new archaeological research and cutting-edge technology and features objects from Yorkshire Museum’s own collection, the Vale of York hoard, co-owned with the British Museum, and specially loaned national and regional items, including from the Viking Army Camp at Aldwark, North Yorkshire.

Sea, Swell, Scribe: Jo Walton, Ruth King and Nicky Kippax combine in Pyramid Gallery’s exhibition of paintings, pottery and poetry

Exhibition of the week: Sea, Swell, Scribe, Jo Walton, Ruth King and Nicky Kippax, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until August 31, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday

WHAT happens when you let a poet loose in an art gallery with a piece of charcoal? If the juxtaposition of sumptuous curvy and pointy pots against a backdrop of textured metallic atmospheric paintings is inspiring her, then she will scribble words and phrases all over the plinths

York artist Jo Walton, from Rogues Atelier, potter Ruth King, from the Craft Potters Association, and poet Nicky Kippax, from Bluebird Bakery, combine in a show planned and organised by Pyramid gallery manager Fiona Macfarlane and curated by Walton. Kippax has written Eksphratic verse in response to the paintings and pots.

Street artist Al Murphy in his Naughty Corner at VandalFest at 2, Low Ousegate, York

Street art takeover of the summer: Vandals At Work present VandalFest, 2, Low Ousegate, York, Friday to Sunday, then July 25 to 27, 11am to 6pm

VANDALS At Work reunite with youth homelessness charity Safe and Sound Homes (SASH) for VandalFest, the immersive street art takeover of a disused office block at 2 Low Ousegate, York, with a 2025 theme of the playful, cheeky, witty and mischievous.

The stripped-out interior provides four floors of blank canvas for bold, site-specific “intervention” that cover walls, floors and ceilings, complemented by live DJ sets. Among more than 30 artists from the UK and beyond are Bristol graffiti pioneer Inkie, subversive stencilist Dotmasters, inflatable prankster Filthy Luker, master of optical illusions Chu, rooftop renegade Rowdy and York’s own Sharon McDonagh, Lincoln Lightfoot and Boxxhead. Entry is free, with a suggested £3 donation to SASH.

Dame Harriet Walter: Pride And Prejudice celebration at Wesley Centre, Malton

Ryedale Festival theatre event of the week: Pride And Prejudice, Dame Harriet Walter, Melvyn Tan and Madeleine Easton, Wesley Centre, Malton, Sunday, 7pm

THIS theatrical retelling of Pride And Prejudice by novelist and Austen biographer Gill Hornby marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Star of stage and screen Dame Harriet Walter brings the romance of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy to life in an intimate drawing-room setting, in much the same way that Jane herself first read the story aloud to family and friends.

Carl David’s score for the 1995 BBC television adaptation will be performed by pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Madeleine Easton. The festival runs until July 27; full details and tickets at ryedalefestival.com. Box office: 01751 475777.

Rob Auton: Barmby Moor comedian previews his Edinburgh Fringe show, CAN: The Story Of A Man Called CAN, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Comedy event of the week: Halfway To Edinburgh, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday

IN a week of Edinburgh Fringe previews and comedy nights, Nina Gilligan discusses memory loss, health anxiety and goldfish-related trauma in Goldfish tonight (8pm) and Hayley Ellis navigates middle age in Silly Mare (Work in Progress) tomorrow (8pm).

Susan Riddell and Kate Dolan, on Friday (7.30pm), and Barmby Moor surrealist Rob Auton and Chloe Petts, on Saturday (7.30pm), round off the festival tasters. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Georgi Mottram: Classical BRIT Award nominee performing at Voices United concert in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice

Charity event of the week: Ian Stroughair presents Voices United: Rubies For Our Angel, Grand Opera House, York, Friday, 7.30pm

YORK cabaret artiste and West End musical actor Ian Stroughair co-hosts this fundraiser to mark St Leonard’s Hospice’s 40th anniversary with radio presenters Joanita Musisi and Laura Castle, introducing a night of musical theatre and rock and pop classics.

On the bill will be Stroughair in Velma Celli drag diva regalia; York singer Jessica Steel and guitarist Stuart Allan; York musical theatre actress Joanne Theaker; retro party band Jonny And The Dunebugs; The Voice UK 2024 semi-finalist Lois Morgan Gay and West End classical singer Georgi Mottram. Box office: https://shorturl.at/G3qhV or atgtickets.com/york.

Strictly between us: Anton du Beke and Giovanni Pernice team up for Together Again at York Barbican

Dance show of the week: Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice in Together Again, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing alumni Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice promise “more fun, more dance, more song and even more entertainment than ever before” in the terpsichorean double act’s new show Together Again, full of breathtaking routines, stunning choreography and a seamless blend of Ballroom, Latin and musical theatre. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Craig David: In party mood at Scarborough Open Air Theatre this weekend

Coastal gig of the week: Craig David TS5 Show, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Saturday; gates open at 6pm

SOUTHAMPTON rhythm & blues musician Craig David parades his triple threat as singer, MC and DJ at his TS5 party night, patented at his Miami penthouse. On the 25th anniversary of debut album Born To Do It, expect a set combining old-skool anthems from R&B to Swing Beat, Garage to Bashment, while merging chart-topping House hits too. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Amelia Donkor and Antony Jardine: Playing Gulie Harlock and Seebohm Rowntree respectively alongside 100-strong community ensemble in His Last Report at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Millie Stephens

Community play of the week: His Last Report, York Theatre Royal, Saturday to August 3

FOCUSING on pioneering York social reformer Seebohm Rowntree and his groundbreaking investigation into the harsh realities of poverty, Misha Duncan-Barry and Bridget Foreman’s play will be told through the voices of York’s residents, past and present.

Seebohm’s findings illuminate the struggles of the working class, laying the foundation for the welfare state and sparking a movement that will redefine life as we know it. However, when fast forwarding to present-day York, what is Seebohm’s real legacy as the Ministry begins to dismantle the very structures he championed in His Last Report’s York story with a national impact? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

In Focus: Clap Trap Theatre in Pennyroyal, Helmsley Arts Centre, July 19 & 20, 7.30pm

*Florrie Stockbridge’s Daphne, left, and Natasha Jones’s Christine in Clap Trap Theatre’s Pennyroyal*

HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones and musical partner Florrie Stockbridge take to the stage this weekend in Clap Trap Theatre’s production of Lucy Roslyn’s Pennyroyal.

Premiered in 2022 at the Finborough Theatre, London, this heartrending play about sisterhood and motherhood, enduring love and regrets many years in the making explores the things expected of women and what happens if life does not go to plan.

When Daphne (played by Stockbridge) is diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency at 19, her sister Christine (Jones) steps in to help in the only way she knows how: by donating her eggs. For a while, the world seems corrected. However, as the years go by – and Daphne sets out on the long road of IVF – the sisters’ relationship begins to twist.

“I think of my body sometimes like it’s stubborn,” says Daphne. “We’re not good friends. Like it’s a spooky hotel, and I’m just a ghost haunting it. ’Cause you don’t live in a hotel, you just pass through.”

Pennyroyal is inspired by Edith Wharton’s 1922 novella The Old Maid, a 1922 novella adapted ten years later into a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Zoe Akins. One hundred years on, the story is re-imagined by Roslyn, an award-winning Camden Town performer and writer.

Her most recent work includes Orlando, a previous collaboration with director Josh Roche and Jessie Anand Productions that won the Origins Award at VAULT Festival before transferring to the Pleasance, Edinburgh.

Other work includes Showmanship (Theatre503) and Goody (Pleasance, Edinburgh and Greenwich Theatre – Les Enfants Terribles’ Greenwich Partnership Award 2017). Her debut, The State vs. John Hayes, started life at the Edinburgh Fringe, before touring to Theatre Royal Bath, The Lowry, Salford, the King’s Head Theatre, London, and OSH Brooklyn, New York.

Jones and Stockbridge have received directing and production support from Libby Pearson. Roslyn’s 80-minute play contains strong language and discussion of infertility and domestic violence. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.