Tag: Theatre@41 Monkgate

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 47, from Gazette & Herald

Luxmuralis’s Echoes Of Yorkshire: Art, light and sound in harmony in York Museum Gardens. Picture: Duncan Savage, Ravage Productions, for York Museums Trust

GARDEN art & light installations, wartime memories and Dracula and Cinderella retellings spark Charles Hutchinson’s interest.

Installation of the week: Echoes Of Yorkshire, York Museum Gardens, until Sunday, 6pm to 8.20pm

LET light, colour and music surround you at Luxmuralis’s light and sound installation as artist Peter Walker, composer David Harper and lighting designer Steve Rainsford bring the story alive of the Yorkshire Museum and York Museum Gardens from 1,000 images. 

Immerse yourself in the story of the historic site with contemporary light and music showcasing York Museum Trust’s age-defining artefacts and extraordinary exhibits. Tickets: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk.

David Barrott, Catherine Edge and Adam Marsdin in rehearsal for Settlement Players’ production of Party Piece

Calamitous comedy misadventure of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Party Piece, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

AMERICAN director, writer, producer, historian and stuntman Martin T Brooks directs Settlement Players for the first time in Richard Harris’s calamitous 1992 comedy Party Piece.

Michael and Roma Smethurst are preparing meticulously for their fancy-dress housewarming party as Mrs Hinson, not the biggest fan of her upper-class new neighbours, keeps a criticising eye on the attendees. Then disasters strike: an embarrassing lack of guests, a burning barbeque, a marauding Zimmer frame and a corpse showing up at the front door. Cue chaos. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Cassie Vallance, left, and Jane Bruce in Story Craft Theatre’s Bat, Cackle And Pop! at York Theatre Royal

Children’s Halloween show of the week: Story Craft Theatre in Bat, Cackle And Pop!, York Theatre Royal Studio, today until Friday, 10.30am and 1pm

WINIFRED the Witch thinks everyone has forgotten her birthday. Not so. There will be a big surprise party, but first, a special birthday cake must be made.

“We just need the last three rather spooky ingredients,” say York company Story Craft Theatre’s Cassie Vallance and Jane Bruce. “Our show is bubbling with all sorts of ghosts and ghouls – more silly than scary – and there’s plenty of opportunities to dabble in some spell making, as well as flying with luxury BAT Airways.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Jimmy Regal & The Royals: Playing Ryedale Blues Club at Milton Rooms, Malton

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Jimmy Regal & The Royals, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm

JIMMY Regal & The Royals are a tough and howlin’ harmonica-led three piece from South London, brandishing a sound from Mississippi to New Orleans, Mali to Canvey Island. Signed to Lunaria Records, they are touring to promote latest album Well Boss, a live set recorded at the Temperance in Leamington Spa. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Stage Hammer: Revamping Bram Stoker’s Dracula

High stakes of the week: Stage Hammer in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow and Friday, 7.30pm; Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm

WOLVES howl in the forests of Transylvania. Waves crash violently against the cliffs below Whitby Abbey. The infection is spreading. Count Dracula (Stuart Sellens) walks among us. Yorkshire solicitor Jonathan Harker (Callum Mathers) travels to a castle in the Carpathian Mountains to finalise the sale of property for a reclusive nobleman.

When he seemingly vanishes, fiancée Mina (Jennifer Jones) and her closest friend Lucy (Kathryn Lay) fall into the grip of a sinister force. Their only hope for survival is the mysterious vampire slayer Professor Van Helsing (Christopher C Corbett) in East Yorkshire troupe Stage Hammer’s new account of Bram Stoker’s vampire story, adapted by Corbett and directed by Lydia Baldwin. Box office: York, 01904 658338 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk; Pickering, 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk. 

Fizzy with the singers in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone: Theo Rae, Isla Lightfoot, Olivia Swales and Beau Lettin

Musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, October 31 to November 8, 7.30pm, except Sunday and Monday; 2.30pm, both Saturdays and Sunday

LESLEY Hill directs and choreographs York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s cast of 40 young performers in  Alan Parker and Paul Williams’s musical, replete with the film songs You Give A Little Love,  My Name Is Tallulah, So You Wanna Be A Boxer?, Fat Sam’s Grand SlamandBugsy Malone.

In Prohibition-era New York, rival gangsters Fat Sam and Dandy Dan are at loggerheads. As custard pies fly and Dan’s splurge guns wreak havoc, penniless ex-boxer and all-round nice guy Bugsy Malone falls for aspiring singer Blousey Brown. Can Bugsy resist seductive songstress Tallulah, Fat Sam’s moll and Bugsy’s old flame, and stay out of trouble while helping Fat Sam to defend his business? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Little Seeds Music: Refreshing the fairytale world in Cinderella Ice Cream Seller

Fairytale retelling of the week: Little Seeds Music in Cinderella Ice Cream Seller, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 2.30pm

OVER the past four decades, Cinderella’s has become the kingdom’s most beloved ice cream company, with a parlour on every street corner, but how did this humble maker become a multimillionaire business woman with her own empire?

Prepare your dessert spoons for a tale of perseverance, princes, palace balls, glass slippers and, yes, ice cream in writer-composer David Gibb’s hour-long family musical, wherein loyal Cinderella’s employees Talvi and Caldwell share her rags-to-riches tale and confront their own desires, hopes and the magic that lies within each scoop. Suitable for age five upwards. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Bomb Happy: Film and live performance double bill for VE Day at Milton Rooms, Malton

Theatre memorial of the week: Everwitch Theatre in Bomb Happy VE Day double bill, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 3pm

PRESENTED in the lead-up to Remembrance Sunday, whose focus this year falls on 80th anniversary of VE Day, Bomb Happy has been created by writer-performer Helena Fox and actor-vocalist Natasha Jones, of Everwitch Theatre.

From D-Day to VE Day, this powerful one-hour double bill of live performance (30 minutes) and short film (30 minutes) brings to life the verbatim accounts of two working-class Yorkshire Normandy veterans, highlighting the lifelong impact of post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep trauma, not only on war veterans but on their families too. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Chris Smither: Playing All Saints Church, Pocklington tonight

In Focus: Chris Smither, All Saints Church, Pocklington, tonight, 7.30pm

CHRIS Smither, truly an American original, returns to the UK to perform songs from his vast catalogue on his 2025 UK and Irish tour as he approaches his 81st birthday on November 11.

Honing his synthesis of folk and blues for more than 50 years, this profound songwriter and captivating performer, from Miamai, Florida, melds the styles of his two major influences, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt, into his own signature guitar sound.

His music draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, modern poets and humanist philosophers. His songs have featured in films and TV shows and been covered by John Mayall, Emmylou Harris,  Bonnie Raitt and Diana Krall, among others.

Smither continues to tour festivals, music clubs and concerts halls all over the world. Now he showcases his 20th studio album, 2024’s All About The Bones, produced by long-time friend and producer David Goodrich, which complements eight new compositions with Smither’s renditions of Eliza Gilkyson’s Calm Before The Storm and Tom Petty’s Time To Move On.

The recording sessions took place at Sonelab Studios in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where Smither was joined by Goodrich, Zak Trojano, BettySoo and Chris Cheek.

The New York Times said of All About The Bones: “With a weary, well-travelled voice and a serenely intricate finger-picking style, Mr Smither turns the blues into songs that accept hard-won lessons and try to make peace with fate.”

Singer-songwriter BettySoo is Smither’s guest on the tour. Tickets for tonight cost £21.50 at www.smither.com.

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York Stage to take deeper dive into “beautiful mess of growing up different in a northern city” in new staging of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie next October

York Stage’s poster to announce next October’s production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Grand Opera House, York

YORK Stage will present a “bold and gritty” new production of Sheffield-forged musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Grand Opera House, York, from October 16 to 24 2026.

Hold on. Didn’t York Stage perform Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae’s award-winning show at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in June 2023? Yes indeed, but that was the York premiere of the Teen Version, starring Ryan Addyman, from Knaresborough, in the title role in his York Stage debut.

Now, director Nik Briggs has decided to re-imagine the award-winning musical with a “raw, authentic edge, capturing the electricity, humour and heart that has made Jamie a modern British classic”. How? By diving deeper into Jamie’s world.

Ryan Addyman as Jamie New in York Stage’s June 2023 York premiere of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Teen Edition. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

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 for the 2017 Sheffield Crucible Theatre premiere.

Inspired by a true story, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie follows 16-year-old Jamie New, who doesn’t quite fit in. Supported by his loving mum and his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps into the spotlight to become the star he was born to be.

York Stage’s 2026 production promises a fresh take on the hit West End show, blending Gillespie Sells’s infectious pop score and MacRae’s fearless, humorous book with York Stage’s trademark theatrical grit and emotional honesty.

 Nik Briggs: Directing York Stage’s 2026 production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

“This is a story about identity, courage and the power of self-expression,” says Nik. “Our new production will dive deeper into Jamie’s world – its highs, its heartache and its hope – and celebrate the beautiful mess of growing up different in a northern city. We can’t wait to share this version with York audiences.”

Next October’s full-scale production will feature a vibrant cast and professional creative team, marking another landmark moment for York Stage at the Grand Opera House. Tickets will go on sale soon at atgtickets.com/york.

Did you know?

EVERYBODY’S Talking About Jamie was last staged in York by Pick Me Up Theatre at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in July 2025, when 15-year-old York schoolboy Harvey Stevens took the lead role of Jamie New.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when walls come alive with art and light. Hutch’s List No. 47, from The York Press

Principal dancers, dance captains and siblings Anna Mai Fitzpatrick and Fergus Fitzpatrick in Riverdance’s 30th anniversary show, The New Generation

LEFT-FIELD Halloween entertainment, garden art and light installations, Normal comedy and a splurge gun musical spark Charles Hutchinson’s interest.

Dance show of the week: Riverdance, 30th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, today and tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

VISITING 30 UK venues – one for each year of its history – from August to December 2025, the Irish dance extravaganza Riverdance rejuvenates the much-loved original show with new innovative choreography and costumes, plus state-of-the-art lighting, projection and motion graphics, in this 30th anniversary celebration.

For the first time, John McColgan directs “the New Generation” of Riverdance performers, none of them born when the show began. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Blair Bitch Project: Playing on Navigators Art’s bill at YO Underworld 6 at The Basement

Live, left-field, local new music, comedy and words for Halloween: Navigators Art presents YO Underworld 6, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 7.30pm

IN this special Halloween edition, York arts collective Navigators Art plays host to riot grrrl punk and grunge-inspired York quartet Blair Bitch Project and improvising cellist and sound artist Gaia Blandina, performing collaborative, open-form pieces with Ish, featuring Iris Casling, double bass, Des Clarke, oboe, and Nika Ticciati, voice.

Joshua Arnold & Therine: Welcoming the coming of Samhain at YO Underworld 6

Taking part too are dark hurdy-gurdy and vocal-led trad and experimental drone folk combo Joshua Arnold & Therine, welcoming the coming of Samhain; Kane Bruce,  delivering his outrageously dark yet cheeky take on “taboo” topics, and Hull poet Melissa Shode, who explores identity in the socio-political climate and writes for release, justice and the voiceless. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance or on the door.

Steve Gunn: Showcasing his two 2025 albums at The Band Room, Low Mill, tonight. Picture: Paul Rhodes

Moorland gig of the week: Steve Gunn, The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, North York Moors, tonight, 7.30pm

STEVE Gunn, the ambient psychedelic American singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York, made his name as a guitarist in Kurt Vile’s backing band, The Violators. His myriad magical influences include Michael Chapman, Michael Hurley and John Fahey.

This weekend he will be showcasing his second album of 2025, Daylight Daylight, out on November 7 on No Quarter, as well as his first fully instrumental album, August’s Music For Writers. Box office: 01751 432900 or thebandroom.co.uk.

Hands and Voices: York choir singing at Laughs, Lyrics & You! at the Gateway Centre on Sunday

Inclusive open mic event of the week: Accessible Arts & Media presents Laughs, Lyrics & You!, Gateway Centre, York, Sunday, 2.30pm to 5pm

WHAT is Laughs, Lyrics & You!? “The idea is to have an open mic-type event, in a relaxed and friendly environment that’s accessible and fun, with tea and cake too,” says Accessible Arts & Media (AAM) chief executive officer Chris Farrell. “Our projects, IMPs, Movers and Shakers and Hands and Voices, will start the show with their wonderful music, dances and stories.

“Then it’s over to whoever would like to perform. Any talent is welcome, a duet, a solo instrument, a poetry reading, a recording of some original music, jokes…whatever you can think of would be great!” To take part, performers must contact projects@aamedia.org.uk or ring Hannah on 07762 428818. Admission is free; donations welcome.

Artist Ric Liptrot: Taking part in That Acomb Arty Thing

Art event of the week: That Acomb Arty Thing, Art Trail, until November 2; Open Studios, November 1 and 2

DISCOVER York artists’ work in venues around Acomb on the autumn Art Trail featuring Carla Ballantine, Linda Braham, Ric Liptrot, Jelena Lunge, Rae Merriman, Isaac Savage, Ginette Speed, Donna Taylor and Dianne Turner.

North Yorkshire Open Studios participants are hosting open studios next Saturday and Sunday: Paul Mathieson & Peter Mathieson, 49 Jute Road, 10am to 4pm; Peijun Cao, 60 Jute Road, 10.30am to 5pm; Fran Brammer, 81 Jute Road, 10am to 4pm; Charlotte Lister & Charley Hellier, 7 Chestnut Grove, 10am to 2pm; Robin Grover-Jacques, 35 Chestnut Grove, 11am to 4pm, and Mo Nisbet, 116 Acomb Road, 11am to 4pm.

Blue sigh thinking? Henry Normal reflects on himself, his mistakes, his Z celebrity status, in The Slideshow

Normal service resumed: Henry Normal, The Slideshow, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 8pm

THE Slideshow, as poet, film and TV producer/writer Henry Normal explains, is a multi-MEdia spectacular with the emphasis on the “me” in his celebration of his “meteoric rise to Z celebrity status”, followed by his joyous and inevitable slide into physical and mental decline.

Expect poetry, photos, jokes, music, dance, song, circus skills, costume changes, props and stories, exploring where Normal  went wrong in life, plus lessons you can learn from his mistakes, in this memoir with cautionary verse. Box office: helmsleyarts.co.uk.

David Barrott, left, Catherine Edge and Adam Marsdin in rehearsal for Settlement Players’ production of Party Piece

Calamitous comedy misadventure of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Party Piece, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 28 to November 1, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

AMERICAN director, writer, producer, historian and stuntman Martin T Brooks directs Settlement Players for the first time in Richard Harris’s calamitous 1992 comedy Party Piece.

Michael and Roma Smethurst are preparing meticulously for their fancy-dress housewarming party. Mrs Hinson, not the biggest fan of her upper-class new neighbours, is keeping a criticising eye on the attendees. Then disasters strike: an embarrassing lack of guests, a burning barbeque, a marauding Zimmer frame and a corpse showing up at the front door. Cue chaos. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Cassie Vallance, left, and Jane Bruce in Story Craft Theatre’s Bat, Cackle And Pop! at York Theatre Royal

Children’s Halloween show of the week: Story Craft Theatre in Bat, Cackle And Pop!, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 29 to 31, 10.30am and 1pm

WINIFRED the Witch thinks everyone has forgotten her birthday. Not so. There will be a big surprise party, but first, a special birthday cake must be made.

“We just need the last three rather spooky ingredients,” say York company Story Craft Theatre’s Cassie Vallance and Jane Bruce. “Our show is bubbling with all sorts of ghosts and ghouls – more silly than scary – and there’s plenty of opportunities to dabble in some spell making, as well as flying with luxury BAT Airways.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Rory Stewart: Discussing his new book, Middleland, at York Barbican

Book event of the week: Toppings presents Rory Stewart, Middleland, York Barbican, October 30, 7pm

NOW Professor of the Practice of Grand Strategy at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs and Alastair Campbell’s co-podcaster on The Rest Is Politics, Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade as Conservative MP of Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and the Border.

Living in the Eden Valley, he found inspiration in the beauty of Cumbrian landscape, its rugged history as a frontierland, and the spirit of its people, prompting him to write Middleland: Dispatches From The Borders, a portrait of rural Britain today: a place caught in tensions between farming and the natural world, between the need to preserve and to grow, between local and national politics. Over to you, Rory.  Tickets: toppingbooks.co.uk/events/york/rory-stewart-middleland/.

Fizzy with the singers in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone: Theo Rae, Isla Lightfoot, Olivia Swales and Beau Lettin

Musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, October 31 to November 8, 7.30pm, except Sunday and Monday ; 2.30pm, both Saturdays and Sunday

LESLEY Hill directs and choreographs York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s cast of 40 young performers in  Alan Parker and Paul Williams’s musical, replete with the movie songs You Give A Little Love,  My Name Is Tallulah, So You Wanna Be A Boxer?, Fat Sam’s Grand SlamandBugsy Malone.

In Prohibition-era New York, rival gangsters Fat Sam and Dandy Dan are at loggerheads. As custard pies fly and Dan’s splurge guns wreak havoc, penniless ex-boxer and all-round nice guy Bugsy Malone falls for aspiring singer Blousey Brown. Can Bugsy resist seductive songstress Tallulah, Fat Sam’s moll and Bugsy’s old flame, and stay out of trouble while helping Fat Sam to defend his business? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

In Focus: Tom Grennan, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, July 25 2026

BEDFORD singer-songwriter Tom Grennan is the first act to be confirmed for the Music Showcase Weekend at the 2026 York Racecourse flat racing season.

Grennan, 30, has achieved three UK number one albums, 2021’s Evering Road, 2023’s What Ifs & Maybes and 2025’s Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be, preceded by his top five-charting 2018 debut Lighting Matches. 

He has chalked up hit singles too with Little Bit Of Love, Let’s Go Home Together (with Ella Henderson), Remind Me, Lionheart (Fearless, with Joel Corry), Here, How Does It Feel, It Can’t Be Christmas, By Your Side (Calvin Harris, featuring Tom Grennan) and Not Over Yet (KSI, featuring Tom Grennan).

Next summer’s Knavesmire gig will form part of a busy touring schedule for Grennan, who also co-hosts the You About? podcast with TV and radio presenter Roman Kemp.

Racing and music fans can take advantage of a price freeze on adult general admission on the track’s website, meaning entrance to the main Grandstand and Paddock enclosure, starts at just £40 per person for a group of six. As well as free car parking, no booking fees apply on this route to purchase. To book, visit www.yorkracecourse.co.uk.

On the racecourse, the racing action will see seven thoroughbred contests with combined prize money of £380,000. The Group Two feature race will be the Sky Bet York Stakes.

The Summer Music Saturday meeting will be held on June 27; the Friday evening Music Showcase Weekend meeting on July 24. Music acts for both those days are yet to be confirmed; keep checking www.yorkracecourse.co.uk for further announcements, expected soon.

James Brennan, head of marketing and sponsorship says: “It is great news that Tom Grennan is joining the artists to have performed on the Knavesmire; a performer who has gone from strength to strength. It will herald a month for music and racing fans to remember.”

In Focus too: Luxmuralis presents Echoes Of Yorkshire, York Museum Gardens, until November 2, 6pm to 8.20pm

Luxmuralis’s Echoes Of Yorkshire transforming the St Mary’s Abbey ruins in York Museum Gardens. Picture: Duncan Savage, Ravage Productions, for York Museums Trust

LET light, colour and music surround you at the Echoes Of Yorkshire light and sound installation conjured by the internationally acclaimed Luxmuralis, who bring alive the culturally rich story of the Yorkshire Museum and York Museum Gardens.

Visitors are invited to “immerse yourself in the story of the historic site with contemporary light and music showcasing its age-defining artefacts and extraordinary exhibits. Join us to celebrate all that the museum and its gardens bring to our city and the wider north of England.”

In the 30-year collaboration of sculptor and artist Peter Walker and composer David Harper, Luxmuralis travels the world to create stories in light and sound for audiences at locations ranging from the Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral, London, to city-wide open-air projections in places such as Oxford and Limburg in the Netherlands.

Through combining fine art, light and sound, Luxmuralis reflects closely on the history and heritage of places by weaves together the contemporary and the ancient.

Now, for the first time, Luxmuralis is transforming the walls of York in Echoes Of Yorkshire in York Museum Gardens for ten evenings filled with six looping art installations and landscape lighting by Steve Rainsford.

Ticketed entry time slots are given every 20 minutes, but once in the gardens visitors can journey through the experience at their own pace with a recommended walking time of one hour. Refreshments will be available to buy on the night, including from Thor’s tipi.

Echoes Of Yorkshire is suitable for all ages. Audiences will experience the gardens’ history from the Roman period to its time as an abbey (St Mary’s Abbey) in tandem with Luxmuralis’s showcase of the Yorkshire Museum’s collections that span 60 million years from the Jurassic and the Mesolithic, through to the Romans, Viking, Anglo Saxon and Medieval.

Welcoming Luxmuralis to York Museum Gardens, Siona Mackelworth, head of audience and programme for York Museums Trust, says: “We are delighted that Luxmuralis agreed to produce a very special and bespoke show for us here in York.

“This is a celebration of all that the Yorkshire Museum brings to the city, its history and the location as the repository of great discoveries and stories. With this amount of content, the Luxmuralis light and sound show looks amazing.”

Luxmuralis artistic director Peter Walker says: “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with the team at Yorkshire Museum to deliver a truly distinctive experience set within the stunning and historically rich Museum Gardens.

“By drawing inspiration from the museum’s collections, this light installation re-imagines the architecture and landscape in an entirely new and transformative way.”

Tickets cost £13.50 per adult; £9.50 for children aged five to 16; free admission for under-fives. Box office: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk. Echoes Of Yorkshire is on a constant loop from 6pm to 8.20pm each night. Please note, only assistance dogs will be allowed into the gardens during the event.

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Martin T Brooks makes Settlement Players debut directing Richard Harris’s comedy Party Piece at Theatre@41, Monkgate

York Settlement Community Players cast members Heather Patterson, Adam Marsdin and Helen Wilson in rehearsal for Richard Harris’s Party Piece

AMERICAN stuntman, director, writer and producer Martin T Brooks is directing York Settlement Community Players for the first time in Richard Harris’s calamitous comedy Party Piece at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from October 28 to November 1.

“Last November, a friend of mine suggested I apply to direct a show for the York Settlement Community Players, but not having much notable experience directing theatre, I didn’t think I had much of a chance,” he says.

“Luckily for me, and many others, YSCP’s mission is to give aspiring directors the chance to direct. So, I did my research, got my ducks all in a row and made my pitch to the committee. Must have done something right because here I am. Directing Party Piece.”

Here Martin discusses his YSCP debut with CharlesHutchPress.

What happens in Party Piece?

“Michael and Roma are meticulously preparing for their fancy-dress housewarming party. Roma is treating the event like the coronation of the newest monarch, with Michael thinking he is planning the Normandy landing, as well as manning the barbeque with five-star determination and the personality of Gordon Ramsay.

“Mrs Hinson – who is not the biggest fan of her upper-class new neighbours – keeps a watchful and criticising eye on the attendees with the evening looking to be the social event of the neighbourhood.

“That is until a series of disasters strike, including an embarrassing lack of guests, a burning barbeque, a marauding Zimmer frame and a corpse showing up at the front door, turning the party into a hilarious misadventure.”

What attracted you to directing Party Piece? What are the play’s strengths, and why put it on in 2025?

“I selected Party Piece for several reasons. One being that with everything going on these days, I think we could all use a good laugh – and this show as them in abundance. I can remember, back in the day, my dad was playing a recording of an old radio broadcast of Steptoe And Son.

James Wood’s Michael Smethurst, left, Darron Barrott’s Toby Hancock and Catherine Edge’s Roma Smethurst rehearsing a scene from Party Piece

“Being only six or so, I didn’t really understand the jokes, but my dad sure thought they were funny. And dad didn’t laugh much. I guess this is when I first realised there was something special about old-time British comedies.

“Party Piece reminded me a lot of the classic British sitcoms I used to watch when I lived in the States, such as Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served, Chief (remember that one?) and my favourite, The Good Life – which Party Piece has a lot in common with.

“The show also includes special effects, such as a smoking barbecue and wig, exploding fairy lights and a collapsing chair. As a former professional stuntman, I always like to create such effects, especially for the theatre.”

What is the history of Party Piece? When and where was it first performed?

“According to Theatricalia.com, the play, written by award-winning British playwright Richard Harris, was first performed at the Thorndike Theatre on September 15 1987. Although its official publication date is 1992.”

Have you seen a previous production of Party Piece?

“I have not seen the production live and could only find a few photos of previous production by Am Dram groups.”

Have you brought new faces to the Settlement ranks or gone with settled Settlement faces?

“The auditions were open to anyone and brought in the usual suspects of veteran actors from the North Yorkshire area. We do have one newcomer in Heather Patterson, who will be making her stage debut with YSCP. I consider myself very lucky that I was able to find experienced actors who fit the characters they are portraying so perfectly.”

Darren Barrott, left, Catherine Edge and Adam Marsdin in rehearsal for Martin T Brooks’s production

What will be the set design for the show?

“I created the overall design and based it on the description in the script and what a typical English back garden would look like in the early 2000s. The set is being constructed by Richard Hampton.”

Will there be music for the party?

“One of the funniest running gags in the play is Michael’s many failed attempts to get the music planned for the party to play properly. I’ve selected a few appropriate party pieces of music like Whitney Huston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody and Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, which play well alongside the comic action taking place on stage.”

What makes a good party?

“The people, the food and the music.”

What makes a bad party?

“Music that is way too loud.”

Do you have your own party piece that you can reel out at a gathering?

“Like most blokes, after a few pints, I think I’m a pretty good stand-up comedian and can tell a few good ex-wife jokes and what it’s like being an American living in the UK.”

York Settlement Community Players in Party Piece, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 28 to November 1, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk

Martin T Brooks: back story

American director, writer, producer, historian and author Martin T Brooks

1974: Auditioned for his first community theatre production, Oliver!. “I was severely bitten by the theatre bug,” says Martin. “I’ve been involved in the theatre, TV and film industries since that time, and I can’t imagine a world without myself being involved in these creative art forms.”

1985 to 1987:  Writer/producer/director for local TV station (KABL-52 in Minnesota, USA), responsible for directing and broadcasting a variety of live and in studio productions. “During this time, I was recognised for my contributions to the local community and was awarded the Community Access Merit award,” says Martin.

1985 to 1995: In his ten years as a stuntman, Martin appeared (uncredited) in the film Drop Dead Fred, as well as a few pilot TV shows filmed in Phoenix, Arizona. “Most of my work was on live stunt shows like Thrill Show 2000, which you can find on my YouTube channel,” he says.

2007 to 2011:  Deputy Manager and lighting technician for Watersmeet Theatre in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. “This provided me with many opportunities to be part of the technical/production staff, as well as stage manage numerous professional and amateur productions,” says Martin.

2011:  “While working for St Michael’s Catholic High School in Garston, Hertfordshire, I was asked to direct the Year 9 & 10 production of Romeo And Juliet, as well as other shows put on by the senior performing arts students.

2017:  Wrote and directed a series of “living history” plays based on real-life characters researched by Martin  while writing the book Acts Of Caring And Other Heroics, Stories from the Leavesden Asylum/Hospital (1870 to1995).

“These plays were performed on an open-air stage during various history/Heritage Day events sponsored by the local district council, or in many primary schools as part of their local history/heritage studies,” he says.

2022 to 2024: Appeared in leading roles in 11 student/independent films and received Best Actor award from 2023 Alternative Film Festival, Toronto, Canada for portrayal of Charles in the short film The Beggers Story, produced by students at University of York’s TV/film programme.

2024:  Wrote, produced and directed a short film, again based on real-life characters researched while writing Acts Of Caring And Other Stories. His film Going Home can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/986560818.

2025: Directing York Settlement Community Players for the first time in Richard Harris’s Party Piece.

Who’s in the Settlement Players’ cast for Party Piece?

JAMES Wood as Michael Smethurst; Catherine Edge as Roma Smethurst; Helen Wilson as Mrs Hinson; Adam Marsdin as David Hinson; Heather Patterson as Jennifer Hinson; Xandra Logan as Sandy Lloyd-Meredeth, and Darren Barrott as Toby Hancock.

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REVIEW: York Shakespeare Project in The Spanish Tragedy, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday ****

Harry Summers’ Hieronimo: “The Hamlet of the piece” in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. All pictures: John Saunders

BACK in the Elizabethan day, Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy outsold Hamlet.

Truth be told, he was pretty much a one-hit wonder, (even “the one and only” Chesney Hawkes had a minor second hit, I’m A Man Not A Boy in 1991), and Kyd has been long dead and buried, like most of his players in what is now viewed as the groundbreaking template for revenge tragedies.

York Shakespeare Project’s decision to expand the focus beyond the Bard in its 25-year second cycle of the First Folio facilitates the revival of rival works of Ben Jonson, the ill-fated Christopher “Kit” Marlowe and, yes, one Thomas Kyd (1558-1594), the tragic trailblazer.

After the Pop Art explosion and drag and cancel culture of director-designer Tom Straszewski’s take on Marlowe’s Edward II in October 2023, Paul Toy returns to the YSP director’s chair after a 14-year hiatus to steer his fourth YSP production.

Toy had first read The Spanish Tragedy as part of his university Renaissance Theatre course, playing the insouciant wrong’un Pedringano to boot. He was struck by how so many of its ideas – “a ghost seeking revenge, feigned or real madness, a play within a play” – would be echoed in Hamlet by Shakespeare, the alchemist of playwrights. Better lines, better characters, better gags.

The Spanish Tragedy, however, turns out to have been well worth digging up out of its neglected grave. Yes, it is no match for Hamlet, but this is a meaty work, full of myriad theatre styles, as Toy notes, from dumb shows to execution as street theatre, tragedy as classical as Greek dramas, and not least a Last Judgement scene redolent of the York Mystery Plays. And, boy, does Kyd enjoy piling up the bodies till the last man standing.

The price of love: Emma Scott’s Bel-imperia and Yousef Ismail’s Horatio in York Shakespeare Project’s The Spanish Tragedy

Working in tandem with set designer and choreographer Viv Wilson and mask maker Tempest Wisdom, plus a rotating team of trainee make-up artists from York College (Grace Gilboy, Beth Shearstone, Keira Hosker, Abigail Horton and Ethan Thorpe), Toy gives The Spanish Tragedy the look of the Day of the Dead, with a nod in Wednesday’s make-up to Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight.

Relocated to York from Seattle, Wilson is a sound engineer at Theatre@41, has contributed YSP sets for The Taming Of The Shrew  and Two Gentlemen Of Verona, and once toured the world in a dance group and performed burlesque acts on three continents.

From that portfolio, you see how all life is here in YSP, as it should be in a long-running project, and now Wilson makes her debut in “legitimate theatre” as Revenge, resplendent in red and black, her face skeletal and ghostly white, her voice like a 60-fags-a-day midnight hag. Her mood is intemperate, her mission on a par with the Grim Reaper, but with better putdowns.

Wilson’s Revenge takes her seat to one side of the mezzanine level, reached by a staircase with a platform  above for executions and such like. To the other is the “ghost seeking revenge”, YSP debutant David Lee’s Ghost of Andrea, drained of all colour by way of contrast with Wilson’s crimson Revenge. They will watch on, like the Chorus in Greek dramas, but with an impact more akin to Macbeth’s witches.

At the heart of The Spanish Tragedy is Harry Summers’ Hieronimo, Marshal of Spain, the vengeful Hamlet of the piece, with almost as many lines, but older, enervated. Summers already had his winter of discontent as Richard III and more woe as Coriolanus, and his ninth YSP role is best yet, delivering on “the power of rhetoric” that struck Toy above all else.

The theme of the failure of justice resonates with the rotting modern world, as Toy turns his audience into judge and jury, for Summers’ Hieronimo and Emma Scott’s equally impressive Bel-imperia in particular to make their case. Not for the first time in YSP colours, Scott’s diction is a delight; likewise her emotional range.

Plotters and rotters: PJ Gregan’s Balthazar, left, and Thomas Jennings’s Lorenzo in The Spanish Tragedy

Courtly roles go to YSP stalwarts, Tony Froud’s King of Spain, Emily Hansen’s Duchess of Castile and Nick Jones’s Viceroy of Portugal , while Tim Holman’s makes his first YSP appearance since 2004’s Titus Andronicus in a brace of roles.

On the dark side are Yousef Ismail’s Horatio, YSP newcomer P J Gregan’s Balthazar and Thomas Jennings’ malevolent Lorenzo, breaking the fourth wall with scene-pinching elan, on trademark crop-haired hitman duty again.

Isabel Azar, Cassi Roberts, Martina Meyer and Ben Reeves Rowley fit the the plot-thickening brief to good effect and Sally Mitcham is the play’s moral conscience as Hieronimo’s troubled wife.

Toy directs as playfully as his name would suggest, even using exquisite choral music by the wife-and-her-lover-murdering Gesualdo pre-show and in the interval. When a hanging takes place, darkness descends on the moment of Alan Sharp’s deadpan Hangman administers the drop, whereupon a scroll of The Hanged Man falls into place. Intricate sword-dancing adds to the spectacle, as do all manner of masks.

By the live nature of theatre, anything can happen. What were the odds of a letter dropped from above by Scott’s Bel-imperia landing in the curtain, out of Summers’ Hieronimo’s sight, no matter where he looked. To the rescue rode the director, in the back row. “Top of the curtain,” he bellowed, bringing the house down. Just one of many good decisions he made in this fruitful resurrection of Kyd’s play of men – and women – behaving very badly.

York Shakespeare Project in The Spanish Tragedy, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The cold touch: PJ Gregan’s Balthazar and Emma Scott’s Bel-imperia in York Shakespeare Project’s The Spanish Tragedy

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More Things To Do in York and beyond. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 46 of criminally good entertainment, from The York Press

Martha Tilston: Playing The Basement tonight at City Screen Picturehouse

CRIMINAL investigations and a brace of plays with murder at the core, Charles Hutchinson detects a theme to his latest recommendations.

Singer-songwriter of the week: Martha Tilston, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 7.30pm

BORN in Bristol and now living in Cornwall, singer, songwriter and filmmaker Martha Tilston writes songs from the heart as a balm for the modern age.

Tilston, who has worked Zero 7, Damien Rice, Nick Harper, Kae Tempest and Aztec Camera’s Roddy Frame, combines raw vocals and sparkling melodies with thought-provoking lyrics and filmic movements, inviting her audience to “connect with longed-for parts of ourselves”. Box office: marthatilston.co.uk.

Jennifer Rees: Exploring stories of serial killers in forensic detail at the Grand Opera House, York

Criminal investigations of the week: Strange But True Crimes with Jennifer Rees, Grand Opera House, York, October 21, 7.30pm

FORMER forensics lecturer and Psychology Of Serial Killers presenter Jennifer Rees explores stories such as the serial killer who gained work in law enforcement while on the run – and ended up hunting himself.

Watch out too for the female, balloon-carrying killer clown, serial killers on game shows – how  their appearances led to their identification – and  many more stories. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Jason Durr’s Jonny ‘The Cyclops’, right, accosting the nervous burglar in Torben Betts’s comedy thriller Murder At Midnight. Picture: Pamela Raith

Deliciously twisted crime caper of the week: Original Theatre in Murder At Midnight, York Theatre Royal, October 21 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

ON New Year’s Eve, in a quiet corner of Kent, a killer is in the house in Torben Betts’s comedy thriller Murder At Midnight, part two of a crime trilogy for Original Theatre that began last year with Murder In The Dark, this time starring Jason Durr, Susie Blake, Max Howden and Katie McGlynn.

Meet Jonny ‘The Cyclops’, his glamorous wife, his trigger-happy sidekick, his mum – who sees things – and her very jittery carer, plus a vicar, apparently hiding something, and a nervous burglar dressed as a clown. Throw in a suitcase full of cash, a stash of deadly weapons and one infamous unsolved murder…what could possibly go wrong? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon: Showcasing new album Rainy Sunday Afternoon at York Barbican. Picture: Kevin Westerberg

Recommended but sold out already: The Divine Comedy, York Barbican, October 21, doors 7pm

IN the wake of composing all the original songs for the 2023 global blockbuster Wonka, North Irishman Neil Hannon has returned to his Divine Comedy guise for September 19’s Rainy Sunday Afternoon: album number 13 and his first studio set since 2019’s Office Politics.

Recorded at Abbey Road, London, the album was written, arranged and produced by Hannon, who covers his usual range of emotions: sad, funny, angry and everything in between. Hear Hannon songs new and old next Tuesday, when Studio Electrophonique will be the special guest. Box office, for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Katie Melia’s Show White in Steve Coates Music Productions’ Disenchanted, turning fairy tales on their head at the JoRo

Cheeky twist on fairy tales of the week: Steve Coates Music Productions in Disenchanted, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 22 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

KATIE Melia directs and leads the cast as Snow White in Steve Coates Music Productions’ production of  Disenchanted, the musical with the feminist twist that turns fairy tales upside down, from the Little Mermaid hitting the bottle to Belle ending up in a straitjacket for chatting with the cutlery.

Forget the damsels in distress, Snow White, Cinderella and their royal crew want to set the record straight. Equipped with sass, wit, and powerhouse vocals, these not-so-princessy princesses flip the script, spill the tea and reclaim their stories as they challenge outdated happily-ever-afters. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Making an impression: Dead Ringers on 25th anniversary tour

Comedy nights of the week: Dead Ringers, October 22, 3pm and 7.30pm, and Nick Mohammed Is Mr Swallow: Show Pony, October 26, 8pm, both at Grand Opera, House, York  

TO mark its 25th anniversary, BBC Radio 4’s topical satire show Dead Ringers takes to the road with a full UK tour for the first time as long-standing cast members Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis MacLeod and Duncan Wisbey take a trip through classic sketches and unrivalled impressions, peppered with  topical humour.

Celebrity Traitors competitor, Taskmaster contestant and Ted Lasso actor Nick Mohammed returns to York as his alter-ego Mr Swallow. Expect magic, music and new mistakes. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Harry Summers, left, and Emma Scott in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s The Spanish Tragedy. Picture: John Saunders

Revenge drama of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Spanish Tragedy, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 22 to 25, 7.30pm

PAUL Toy directs York Shakespeare Project for the fourth time – and the first since Troilus And Cressida in 2011– in “the most popular play of the Elizabethan era, outselling Shakespeare”: Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, the circa 1592 blueprint for the Revenge Tragedy genre.

No Kyd, maybe no Hamlet or The Duchess Of Malfi, as treachery, deceit and disguise are wrapped inside a torrid tale of vengeance-seeking ghosts, madness, a play-within-a-play and a Machiavellian villain, delivered by Toy with masks, music and dance. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. 

Alexandra Mather’s Polly Peachum in York Opera’s The Beggar’s Opera. Picture: John Saunders

Opera of the week: York Opera in The Beggar’s Opera, The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, October 23 to 25, 7.30pm

YORK Opera stage John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch’s 1728 satirical ballad opera The Beggar’s Opera in an immersive production under the musical direction of John Atkin and stage direction of Chris Charlton-Matthews, with choreography by Jane Woolgar.

Watch out! You may find yourself next to a cast member, whether Mark Simmonds’ Macheath, Adrian Cook’s Peachum, Anthony Gardner’s Lockit, Alexandra Mather’s Polly Peachum, Sophie Horrocks’ Lucy Lockit, Cathy Atkin’s Mrs Peachum, Ian Thomson-Smith’s Beggar or Jake Mansfield’s Player. Box office: tickets.yorkopera.co.uk/events/yorkopera/1793200.

Heidi Talbot: Introducing November 21 album Grace Untold at NCEM on October 23

Folk gig of the week: Heidi Talbot, Grace Untold UK Tour, National Centre for Early Music, York, October 23, 7.30pm

IRISH folk singer Heidi Talbot returns to the NCEM stage to preview her November 21 album Grace Untold, a collection of songs based around Irish goddesses and inspirational women.

This is an album rooted in personal experience and collective lore as Heidi pays tribute to female strength, focusing on legendary figures and the unsung heroines within her own family. Box office: 01904 658338 or necem.co.uk.

Riverdance: The New Generation performs the Irish dancers’ 30th anniversary show at York Barbican

Dance show of the week: Riverdance, 30th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, October 24 to 26, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees

VISITING 30 UK venues – one for each year of its history – from August to December 2025, the Irish dance extravaganza Riverdance rejuvenates the much-loved original show with new innovative choreography and costumes, plus state-of-the-art lighting, projection and motion graphics, in this 30th anniversary celebration.

For the first time, John McColgan directs “the New Generation” of Riverdance performers, none of them born when the show began. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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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.

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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

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.

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

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.

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

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 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

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.

In Focus: Prima Choral Artists in Prima XV, Selby Abbey, October 11, 7.30pm

Eva Lorian, artistic director of Prima Choral Artists

ARTISTIC director and producer Eve Lorian is marking 15 years as the visionary force behind Prima Choral Artists, the forward-thinking mixed voice choir that sets standards for diversity and innovation in the choral scene across York and beyond.

Even during the challenges of the pandemic years, Eve has crafted multiple bespoke programmes annually, both in Yorkshire and internationally.

Each concert reflects her distinctive musician’s insight, anticipating trends, celebrating diversity, honouring renowned choral names and championing the work of contemporary composers.

“It’s little wonder that such a portfolio can scarcely be captured in one individual concert, and so Prima have dedicated the entirety of 2025 to recognise these 15 years of musical creativity,” says Eve.

In this autumn’s pinnacle of those celebrations, Eve and Prima Choral Artists will return to Selby Abbey on October 11, where they will be joined once again by Greg Birch on piano.

The guest performers, the New World String Quartet, have a long history of high-level professional engagements across the region and their collaborations with Eve and Prima stretch back almost ten years.

“It’s impossible to express in words what this choir represents and what it has meant to people over these past 15 years,” Eve explains. “In much the same way, it’s nearly impossible to express our entire musical landscape in one single concert – the varied and diverse styles, the collaborations and the opportunity to embrace the new music of living composers.

“Our celebrations at Selby Abbey will, we hope, offer a glimpse of the multitude of genres and techniques that the choir has mastered over this time.”

Such musical diversity demands expertise. As an accomplished instrumentalist, vocal coach and performance mentor, Eve brings a wealth of experience, with her list of qualifications ensuring a steady and skilled hand to guide the singers through the ambitious programme planned for Selby Abbey.

Curated carefully to appeal to all tastes, Eve’s hand-picked selection will provide a glimpse into the breadth and versatility of her choir. The evening will feature the very best of choral music from across the decades, balancing timeless works by Handel and operatic master Verdi with contemporary highlights from Karl Jenkins, John Rutter and the genre-defying Christopher Tin.

In true Prima style, the choir also will celebrate linguistic diversity through its repertoire, performing in Italian, English, Hebrew and Xhosa, alongside the evocative, phonetic pseudo-language of Karl Jenkins.

This rich tapestry of vocal traditions reflects Eve’s long-standing commitment to global music expression, honouring voices and cultures from around the world and inviting audiences to connect through the shared experience of song.

Bridging the gap between classical masters and mid-century Broadway, Leonard Bernstein provides a natural link in the programme, with Stephen Sondheim bringing this genre firmly into the modern era.

The eclectic nature of the evening is enhanced further with music by female choral composers and arrangements of well-known songs by popular artists. Even a touch of “Girl Power” will be given a unique choral treatment.

Eve is in no doubt that this evening is for everyone: “Selby Abbey is a very special place for me and the choir and I am delighted to share this celebration of the choral world in all its wonderful variety, together with familiar and new faces at this most stunning location,” she says.

Prima’s year of anniversary celebrations will continues with two Family Christmas Concerts in St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, on December 13 and 20 at 4pm.

Tickets for Prima XV are selling fast at https://www.primachoral.com/ or in person from the Selby Abbey Gift Shop, open daily 10am to 4pm. Alternatively, buy on the door from 7pm. A bar will be available on the night. For more information on concerts and all things Prima, visit www.primachoral.com.

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Never heard of Lady Augusta Gregory? Discover her Irish plays in Griffonage Theatre’s FourTold at Theatre@41. UPDATED 9/10/2025

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.

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

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

“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 two well-to-do newspaper editors wine, dine and mix up theirCoats; the post office, where the splendid Hyacinth Halvey has sent word he’s coming to town, and the…er, coach stop…where strangers like The Bogie Men can quickly become friends!” she says.

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 Halvey wasn’t done over here either, so our production marks the first time these four plays will be performed together in Great Britain.

Script in hand: Katie Leckey in rehearsal for FourTold. Picture: John Stead

“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 – though I could have chosen any four because they’re so good.

“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.”

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.

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

“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: “The language is 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!”

Katie’s cast of eight will be mirroring the performance manner of the Fay Brothers at the Abbey Theatre, while expanding on its confines. “They trained actors in a very specific style that was expressly for Irish actors, mostly based on the voice,” she says. “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 – such as the butcher who sells unwholesome meat!

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

Katie hopes to do a PhD on Lady Augusta. “I’m applying for it here because you can do a PhD through practice at the University of York,” she says. “I’d love to take her work out of being performed in the Fay Brothers style.

Making an entrance: Katie Leckey’s Magistrate rides on to the Theatre@41, Monkgate stage in the opening Lady Augusta Gregory play, Spreading The News, as James Lee’s Mrs Tully looks on. Picture: John Stead

“Her life was quite politically scandalous as she married a Unionist Anglo-Irish landowner, and had an affair with an Irish Republican. At some point she ran for the Irish Senate [the Seanad Éireann] but didn’t win.

“There’s no theatrical scholarship of her work, though there are biographies of her life story and you can read her letters and some studies of the myths around her work, but no studies of her theatrical work, which I think is criminal.”

Does Lady Augusta have a statue, Katie? “One, at Trinity College in Dublin. W B Yeats has more!” she says. To mark St Brigid’s Day, in February 2023, Trinity College installed four new sculptures in its Old Library to honour the scholarship of four trailblazing women: scientist Rosalind Franklin, mathematician Ada Lovelace, women’s right advocate Mary Wollstonecraft and folklorist, dramatist and theatre-founder Augusta Gregory.

Katie’s cast plays 22 characters between them in her multi-role-playing production. “We have a double task: to make plays that are not familiar feel more familiar, and when her plays are already strange, how do we present them in a familiar style? That’s a big challenge, especially when they’re all wee pieces, almost like sketches,” she says.

“What we’ve done is call on what we’ve done before [productions of Poe In Pitch Black, Patrick Hamilton’s Rope and Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Winter] and call on everyone’s suggestions in rehearsals.

Ben Koch’s Taig and Katie Leckey’s Darby, the chimney sweeps, in The Bogie Men. Picture: John Stead

“Her plays have a very melodramatic, very specific style, one that I’ve never seen on stage, which is why I’m so fascinated by her writing. They’re very stylised, almost like being in a courtroom at points; very joyful in tone and full of very much larger-than-life characters.

“When the plays were put on at The Abbey Theatre, the performances were bare with no theatrical spectacle, just people talking, which hopefully I’ve retained but there now needs to be physicality to supplement the dialogue, which is why I’ve put in slapstick. That’s what I learned from doing The Bogie Men for my Masters, so I’ve tried to extrapolate that to the extreme!”

Describing Lady Augusta’s theatrical tropes, Katie says: “Each of the plays has a dispute or misunderstanding at its centre: the classic comedy sketch set-up with either a minor misunderstanding or a massive argument – and she’s very good at writing massive fall-outs. A lot of the comedy comes from schadenfreude, especially in Coats.”

To capture that abundant friction, Katie has settled on a “thrust-plus” set, created by production designer Wilf Tomlinson. “It’s a traverse stage [with the audience placed either side] but it also goes half way round the balcony as well, so it’s almost in the round too but not quite! I’ve not really set it in any specific time or place, in the Town of Dispute but with modern references such as Rubik’s Cubes, yo-yos and a tricycle. All very playful, for comic effect.”

One final thought from Katie: “I have a sneaky feeling Samuel Beckett must have read The Bogie Men because there are very strange Beckettian tones to it,” she says, in a nod to sparring chimney sweeps Darby and Taig being forerunners of Waiting For Godot’s clownish Vladimir and Estragon

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.

Did you know?

LADY Augusta Gregory acted on stage only once. “She said she would never do it again as she didn’t like the feel of the greasepaint, but she would often be there at performances of her plays, floating around the theatre,” says Katie.

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

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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

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.

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.