Laura Broughton-Janes’ Antipholus of Ephesus, second from right, and her servant, Liz Duggan’s Dromio, in York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead
KATIE Leckey and Emily Carhart buckle up to steer Shakespeasre’s “shortest and possibly funniest play” into piratical waters, replete with lusty sea shanties and the sound of crashing waves.
“The morally questionable, yet still comedic, nature of many (if not all) of the characters put us in mind of some of our favourite piratical antiheroes,” they said in their mission statement.
“We felt like the framing device of piracy gave us the chance to include slapstick violence between ‘masters and servants’ in a way that wouldn’t seem too brutal or alien to a modern audience.”
Two masts from a shipwreck hang over the stage to evoke seafaring in the black box theatre, where the staging is otherwise minimalist, largely left bare for physical comedy and fast-fizzing farce.
Ben Reeves-Rowley’s Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus, in York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead
A plinth is moved into place to denote the higher status of Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus (played by Ben Reeves-Rowley with the clipped vowels and tightened jaw of King Charles III). Later, two sets of doors – the time-honoured harbingers of imminent farce – make appearances, one as the entrance to the abbey, the other with skeleton door knockers in keeping with the piratical reboot.
Andrew Wrenn’s vexed Egeon has to wade his way through a chunk of exposition before the play settles into its rhythm of mistaken identities, spun around two sets of identical twins. Helen Clarke’s flamboyant Antipholus of Syracuse and her servant, Kat Lazarus’s flirtatious Dromio arrive on the corrupt pirate isle of Ephesus , where Laura Broughton-Janes’ Antipholus of Ephesus and her servant, Liz Duggan’s Dromio, are already caught up in the debauched shenanigans.
Add a tavern and booty, and let the misunderstandings and misbehaviour multiply, involving the likes of Ro Trimble’s haughty Adriana, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, Leckey’s Luciano, always quick with a jest, and Harry Summers’ oft-baffled Angelo .
You will note that Antipholus times two are now female, all part of the gender fluidity brought to The Comedy Of Errors by Leckey and Carhart, prompted by being “intrigued by the lack of traditional gender and romantic dynamics in the play”.
“In Elizabethan culture, there was a more flexible understanding of physical and romantic intimacy between same sex partners, as well as a fluid approach to the representation of gender on stage,” they say. “We feel our production is a celebration of relationships of many kinds, platonic, familial and romantic.”
Kat Lazarus’s Dromio of Syracuse, front,and Helen Clarke’s Antipholus of Syracuse in York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead
Laura Broughton-Janes’ Antipholus of Ephesus and her servant, Liz Duggan’s Dromio, in York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead
Luciana becomes Luciano, played by Leckey with a droll air and a cigarette in hand, in a late change of casting that affirms their relish for comic friction and interplay.
The slapstick even features slaps to the face; the likes of Trimble and Reeves-Rowley make the words sing; Andrea Mitchell’s Emilia, the Abbess, gives the peachiest cameo; the musicians on the mezzanine level (Rebecca Jackson, Izzie Burger de Fremol, Vicky Hatt and Emily Rowan) convey matters of the heart and sea, and the sets of twins are so identical that the audience may well have to keep looking twice.
The gender transitions add to the physical comedy, but this is not a play of memorable verbal wit or intellectual insight.
Carhart even called it “silly”, as light as a bubble, and certainly she and Leckey have fun with it, giving it fresh zest, although their claim of its status as “possibly Shakespeare’s funniest play” is debatable.
York Shakespeare Project presents The Comedy Of Errors, Theatre@41, Monkgate, 7.30pm nightly until Saturday, plus2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer) steps in between school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton), left, and dreamer Jamie New (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
FROM a couple all at sea at the SJT to Yorktoberfest in a circus big top, a piratical twist on The Comedy Of Errors to Bison Hip’s blues, Charles Hutchinson recommends ways to stay cheerful.
Bold and unapologetic musical of the week: York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday; 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
TOM MacRae and Dan Gillespie’s Sheffield musical plays the Grand Opera House for the first time in Nik Briggs’s production for York Stage that restores the grit to both complement and counter the glitz in the uplifting underdog story of Jamie New (Frankie Bounds), a 16-year-old schoolboy from a Steel City council estate with big dreams and the courage to stand out when it would be easier to stay quiet.
Equipped with the strength to face the world head on, Jamie fights prejudice, finds his voice and discovers the freedom of stepping into the spotlight on his own terms. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Over-reaching strategy: Phil Corbitt’s Colin puts yet another plan to Sarah Belcher’s exhausted Deborahin Alison Carr’s All At Sea
Premiere of the week: Stephen Joseph Theatre and Live Theatre, Newcastle, present All At Sea, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 31
MARIA Crocker directs Phil Corbitt and Sarah Belcher in All At Sea, Alison Carr’s new play inspired by the real-life escapades of John and Anne Darwin in the early 2000s.
Colin and Deborah are a couple with spiralling debt, a sky-high mortgage and seemingly nowhere to turn. Then Colin comes up with the idea of faking his own death in a canoeing accident in the North Sea for an insurance payout. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope comes face to face with Charlie Russell’s Odysseus in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
Greek tragedy twist of the week: Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, Odyssey: Her Story, York Theatre Royal, until October 31
BOOKER Prize winner Margaret Atwood revisits Homer’s The Odyssey in an exuberantly irreverent and darkly humorous retelling where she gives voice to Odysseus’s silenced wife, Penelope – still awaiting his return 20 years after the Trojan War – and her chorus of maids in a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge that exposes the truth behind the myth. Creative director Juliet Forster’s cast is led by Happy Valley and Riot Women star Amelia Bullmore. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Ben Reeves-Rowley and Harry Summers in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Company’s piratical The Comedy Of Errors
Shakespeare shake-up of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Comedy Of Errors, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
KATIE Leckey and Emily Carhart co-direct York Shakespeare Project in “ an exciting take on Shakespeare’s shortest and possibly funniest play”, giving a piratical, gender-swapping twist to The Comedy Of Errors in a convergence of the original text with slapstick, farce and physical comedy and a “celebration of relationships of many kinds, platonic, familial and romantic”.
“The morally questionable, yet still comedic, nature of many (if not all) of the characters put us in mind of some of our favourite piratical anti-heroes,” they say. “We felt like the framing device of piracy gave us the chance to include slapstick violence between ‘masters and servants’ in a way that wouldn’t seem too brutal or alien to a modern audience.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for The Amy Winehouse Band’s Back To Black 20th Anniversary Tour
Going back to Back To Black: The Amy Winehouse Band, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm
AMY Winehouse’s original band, who played with her from the very start, are marking the 20th anniversary of her iconic second album, Back To Black, the one that brought her five awards at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Performing with Amy that evening, as these musicians had done since her earliest gigs in London pubs, was her band.
Led by Amy’s long-time musical director and bass player, Dale Davis, The Amy Winehouse Band features members who both toured and recorded with her throughout her career. Tomorrow’s gig will be the first of more than 50 on the anniversary itinerary, taking in Hull City Hall on February 12, Sheffield City Hall, February 13, and Harrogate Royal Hall, February 14 2027. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Hudson & Hudson: Combining the magical and the marital at Helmsley Arts Centre
Magic show of the week: Hudson & Hudson Magicians: Married At First Sleight, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
ORIGINALLY from Hull, husband-and-wife magicians Alan and Kat Hudson appeared separately on Britain’s Got Talent before eventually forming a double act. Ant & Dec had suggested they should work together while they were on the show, but they both said no at the time. Between them, they have appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, ITV’s The Next Great Magician and in the West End production Wonderville.
Married At First Sleight mixes magic, mind-reading, comedy and audience participation with the realities of being married to the person with whom you also rehearse, tour and perform. Cue marital banter alongside the tricks. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
York drag diva Velma Celli leading the Yorktoberfest celebrations in the Big Top with The Bavarian Strollers at York Racecourse
Festival of the week: Jamboree Entertainment presents Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Friday, 7pm to 1pm; Saturday, 1pm to 5pm & 7pm to 11pm
FOR the first time, James Cundall’s Jamboree Entertainment is staging Yorktoberfest, York’s traditional Bavarian beer festival, inside a Big Top, launched last weekend by aerial artist Zoe Kulyk twisting and tumbling from the rooftop.
Look out on Friday and Saturday for outrageous York drag diva Velma Celli’s powerhouse singing and quick-fire critique of the costumes on display and oompah band The Bavarian Strollers’ traditional drinking songs and disco classics. The Bavarian Bar and the Dog Haus serve up drinks and German-inspired food. Tickets: www.ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest and at the entrance, subject to availability.
Bison Hip: A dose of the Glasgow blues at Ryedale Blues Club
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Bison Hip, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 29, 8pm
BISON Hip were formed by long-time friends Paul Sloway, Malcolm Button, Steven Radziwonik, John Gilmour Smith and Graeme Carswell during a lockdown Zoom call in 2020. “Maybe it was the mid-life crisis at play,” says vocalist Sloway.
“We wanted to take our love of blues and rock and mix it up with our experiences of life. Between us, we’ve been through so many things in life, ups and downs, some successes and plenty of failures, we wanted all that in the music. We needed to wrap it up in the DNA of our hometown, Glasgow, and hopefully that’s what we’ve achieved.” Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
In the spotlight: Frankie Bounds’ Jamie New, front, in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
FROM added grit in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie to a piratical twist on The Comedy Of Errors, Brandon Flowers in full bloom at York Barbican to drag diva Velma Celli rocking out, Charles Hutchinson spots pearls aplenty.
Bold and unapologetic musical of the week: York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, until October 24; 7.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 4pm Sunday
TOM MacRae and Dan Gillespie’s Sheffield musical plays the Grand Opera House for the first time in Nik Briggs’s production for York Stage that restores the grit to both complement and counter the glitz in the uplifting underdog story of Jamie New (Frankie Bounds), a 16-year-old schoolboy from a Steel City council estate with big dreams and the courage to stand out when it would be easier to stay quiet.
Equipped with the strength to face the world head on, Jamie fights prejudice, finds his voice and discovers the freedom of stepping into the spotlight on his own terms. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope comes face to face with Charlie Russell’s Odysseus in The Penelopiad. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
Greek tragedy twist of the week: Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, Odyssey: Her Story, York Theatre Royal, until October 31
BOOKER Prize winner Margaret Atwood revisits Homer’s The Odyssey in an exuberantly irreverent and darkly humorous retelling where she gives voice to Odysseus’s silenced wife, Penelope – still awaiting his return 20 years after the Trojan War – and her chorus of maids in a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge that exposes the truth behind the myth. Creative director Juliet Forster’s cast is led by Happy Valley and Riot Women star Amelia Bullmore. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Kristin Hersh: Queen of the alternative scene
Recommended but sold out already: An Evening With Kristin Hersh, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight,7.30pm
OVER three decades, Atlanta, Georgia singer, songwriter and guitarist Kristin Hersh, 60, has been heralded queen of the alternative scene with Throwing Muses, 50Foot Wave and on her own, releasing her latest 12th solo album, Sugar On Blackstone, on Fire Records on September 18. Recorded at Stable Sound Studio in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, with Steve Rizzo, it features Rob Ahlers on drums and Pete Harvey on cello.
Since signing to Fire Records in 2018, the prolific Hersh has released tenth studio album Possible Dust Clouds, Throwing Muses’ Sun Racket in 2020, 50Foot Wave’s Black Pearl in 2022, her book Seeing Sideways in 2022 and self-produced 11th solo album, the cinematic road trip and personal vignettes of Clear Pond Road, in September 2023.
Velma Celli: Drag diva delights…including a tribute to Dolly Parton RIP
Drag delights of the week: The Velma Celli Show, with special guest Jessica Steel and guitarists Stuart Allan and Olly Chilton, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 6pm
YORK vocal drag act deluxe and international cabaret superstar Velma Cell moves to a new location for her camp, spectacular song and comedy home-city performances. “My last two shows at York Theatre Royal – Snow Queen and Rock Queen – had been among my favourites, so this one will be a mixture of Snow Queen and Rock Queen and musical theatre material,” says Velma’s creator, actor and West End star Ian Stroughair.
“The first set will be musical theatre favourites, songs from my career in West End musicals – Cats, Fame, Chicago and Rent – and an homage to Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. In the second set we’ll rock out with York. There’ll be songs by David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Bryan Adams, Bonnie Tyler, Guns N’ Roses, Roxette, Alanis Morissette, Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game – and I’ll do a Dolly Parton section too. There has to be!” Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Imperial Classical Ballet in Swan Lake
Ballet of the week: Imperial Classical Ballet presents Swan Lake, York Barbican, October 19, 7.30pm
IMPERIAL Classical Ballet performs Swan Lake, the powerful tale of Princess Odette, cursed to live as a swan by day and a woman by night. When Prince Siegfried discovers her under the moonlight, he vows to break the spell, yet the evil sorcerer Rothbart and his daughter Odile plot a deception that threatens them both.
From the haunting beauty of the lakeside scenes to the electrifying Black Swan pas de deux, Swan Lake is a visual delight, performed to Tchaikovsky’s soaring score, played live by an orchestra. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Brandon Flowers: In full bloom at York Barbican. Picture: Chris Phelps
Gig of the week: Brandon Flowers, York Barbican, October 21, 7.30pm
THE Killers’ frontman, Brandon Flowers, plays York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue on his nine-date UK and Ireland tour, promoting Thrasher, his third solo album and first since 2015, which peaked at number three on release in August.
Fans can look forward to hearing songs from Thrasher, played live for the first time, alongside highlights from his British chart-topping solo albums, 2010’s Flamingo and 2015’s The Desired Effect, as well as beloved tracks from The Killers’ catalogue. No support. Ticket update: Sold out; for returns only, go to https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/brandon-flowers.
Pirate reboot ahoy: York Shakespeare Project in The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead
Shakespeare shake-up of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Comedy Of Errors, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 21 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
KATIE Leckey and Emily Carhart co-direct York Shakespeare Project in “ an exciting take on Shakespeare’s shortest and possibly funniest play”, giving a piratical, gender-swapping twist to The Comedy Of Errors in a convergence of the original text with slapstick, farce and physical comedy and a “celebration of relationships of many kinds, platonic, familial and romantic”.
“The morally questionable, yet still comedic, nature of many (if not all) of the characters put us in mind of some of our favourite piratical anti-heroes,” they say. “We felt like the framing device of piracy gave us the chance to include slapstick violence between ‘masters and servants’ in a way that wouldn’t seem too brutal or alien to a modern audience.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for the Amy Winehouse Band’s Back To Black 20th Anniversary Tour, visiting York Barbican
Going back to Back To Black: The Amy Winehouse Band, York Barbican, October 22, 7.30pm
AMY Winehouse’s original band, who played with her from the very start, are marking the 20th anniversary of her iconic second album, Back To Black, the one that brought her five awards at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Performing with Amy that evening, as these musicians had done since her earliest gigs in London pubs, was her band.
Led by Amy’s long-time musical director and bass player, Dale Davis, The Amy Winehouse Band features members who both toured and recorded with her throughout her career. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
A Fate Worse Than Death: Premiering at Everyman Harrogate on Thursday
In Focus: Film premiere of the week: A Fate Worse Than Death, Everyman Harrogate, Harrogate, October 22, 7.30pm
AFTER three years of production, Abraham Fieldsend will premiere his feature film A Fate Worse Than Death at Everyman Harrogate on Thursday.
Made in North and West Yorkshire for £12,000, this 70-minute psychological horror-drama was produced independently by Wayside Trinity, using primarily local cast, crew and locations.
Written by co-producers Zachary Fieldsend, Steve Jones-Robertson and Abraham Fieldsend, the story explores the effects of grief through a couple struggling to cope with the loss of their child. As the mother’s debilitating headaches intensify, they are forced to confront the possibility that the darkness consuming their home is more than grief alone.
A Fate Worse Than Death’s production team
“A bold title, a tragic story, a horrifying series of events, A Fate Worse Than Death promises to be a horror film of different forms, assaulting your comfort, scarring your emotions, and engaging your mind when the credits roll,” says Fieldsend. “Our first foray into the world of feature film-making will be sure to shock even the most hardened horror fans.”
The cast comprises Susan Fieldsend as Elizabeth; Lyndsey Craine, Doctor Kent; Jake Fireman, Group Therapy Speaker; Kay Gartland, Doctor Armstrong; Martin Turner, Keith; Evan “T-Rex” Singleton, Paramedic 1; Zachary Fieldsend, Paramedic 2; Natalie Fieldsend, Pyschologists’ Receptionist (voice); Neil Fieldsend, Unnamed Doctor; Mike Blackburn, The Figure and Burn Victim, and Matthew Chan, James’s Work Colleague.
Thursday’s running order will be: 7:30pm, complimentary drink on arrival; 8pm, short introduction in Screen 2; 8:15pm, film screening; 9.3pm, screening ends, followed by drinks and a chance to mingle in the bar area.
For more details, go to: https://www.everymancinema.com/venues-list/x0x9k-everyman-harrogate/.
A shoe-in for standing out: Frankie Bounds’s Jamie New, centre, with his classmates in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
WHY will York Stage be returning to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie from tomorrow to October 24 only three years since staging the Teen Edition?
“‘Jamie’ is one of my favourite musicals,” reasons director Nik Briggs. “Having seen it in its early development at the Sheffield Crucible, I always knew I wanted to bring it to York, which we did with the premiere of the Teen Version in June 2023 at Theatre@41, Monkgate, but when the full version became available I knew I had to bring it to the Grand Opera House.
“Having spoken to the then theatre director, Laura McMillan, she knew we’d create a truly beautiful production. Being able to bring this story to York’s biggest theatre for the first time ever is truly an honour, and the bold and gritty new production we’ve created is one I can’t wait to share with York.”
Director Briggs re-imagines Tom MacRae and Dan Gillespie Sells’s award-winning musical with a raw, authentic edge to “capture the electricity, humour and heart that has made ‘Jamie’ a modern British classic”.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie director Nik Briggs
Inspired by a north-eastern true story, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie follows the path of 16-year-old council estate schoolboy Jamie New, who never quite fits in. Supported by his loving mum and his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, defeats the bullies and, spoiler alert, steps into the spotlight to become the star he was born to be.
Staged by a vibrant cast and professional production team, Briggs’s 2026 show will blend Gillespie Sells’s infectious pop score and MacRae’s fearless, funny book and lyrics with York Stage’s trademark theatrical grit and emotional honesty.
“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 small city,” says Nik.
Taking the role of Jamie New will be professional Huby actor Frankie Bounds, still boyish looking at 25. “Playing a 16-year-old schoolboy will be a good challenge,” he says. “It’s a real beast of a role as Jamie doesn’t ever really leave the stage – and it’s not like anything I’ve done before, having played these super-muscular men!
“I said ‘it’s not my usual cup of tea’, but Nik said he wanted to bring something of that broody demeanour back to Jamie,” says lead actor Frankie Bounds, front
“So when Nik messaged me, I replied very honestly and said ‘it’s not my usual cup of tea’, but he said he wanted to bring something of that broody demeanour back to Jamie, which definitely adds to it as it goes back to the core of the original Sheffield Crucible production, with Jamie being gay and having to find himself when his mum’s going through difficult things and his [absent] dad has said terrible things about him.
“There’s a lot of myself in my performance, where I like to challenge myself and other people too – the audience – at the shows.”
York Stage’s design for ‘Jamie’ will be “ever-circling”. “The show has the feel of everything unravelling around Jamie and the set mirrors that,” says Frankie, who has carried that sense of unpredictability into rehearsals.
“Working with Jo [Joanne Theaker-Spencer], who plays Jamie’s mum [Margaret] is just so inspiring. We’ve had several conversations where we’ve built up the trust to try things out.
Ryan Addyman’s Jamie New in York Stage’s June 2023 production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie: Teen Version at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
“I trained in the Meisner Technique [before graduating with an MA in musical theatre from Mountview Academy of Performing Arts], which is all about being different each time and responding to what’s in front of you. Jo gets that, knowing that I’ll do the work, but it will be different each night, to make it both joyful and heartbreaking.
“There’ll be belly laughs one minute, then you’ll get gut-punched the next, with that special energy in the room, where we’ve really bonded together as a cast that comes from different generations.”
Frankie has been familiarising himself with wearing Jamie’s high heels. “They’re in the car right now!” he says, mid-interview at the Angel on the Green, in Bishopthorpe Road. “For the first ‘performance’ we did at York Pride, Nik said, ‘I’ve got something for you’ – and I saw the shoebox!
York Stage’s cast for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, including Joanne Theaker-Spencer’s Margaret (striped top) and Frankie Bounds’ Jamie New (front, centre)
“Bearing in mind I’d never worn heels before, it was almost like a rites of passage. You don’t walk ‘heel first’; it has to be ‘toe first’ – and it means I’m now over six feet tall! They’re much more comfortable now; bright red, of course. What else could they be?!”
Frankie’s dogs Billy and Bob [both of the small white Coton de Tulear breed, originally from Madagascar] were initially circumspect on encountering him in six-inch heels. “They didn’t like the sound of the shoes, or maybe it was my height in them. Hearing me stomping around in them as I cooked lunch, they would cower away,” he says.
Audiences surely will react very differently at the sight of Frankie, when everybody will be talking about more than Jamie’s shoes at the Grand Opera House.
York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, October 16 to 24, 7.30pm except October 18 and 19; 2.30pm Saturday matinees; 4pm, Sunday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York Stage’s poster for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Grand Opera House, York
Lara Stafford’s Charlotte Brontë, the narrator spinning her yarn in Sarah Gordon’s Underdog: The Other Other Brontë. Picture: John Saunders
YORKSHIRE’S most famous yet still mysterious sisters, the literary Brontës of Haworth, turn out to be as much about scrapping as scribbling in Sarah Gordon’s irreverent, coruscatingly honest yet unreliable witness of a play, here making its York debut after its 2024 premiere in a National Theatre-Northern Stage co-production.
We’ve had teenage Kate Bush’s chart-topping Wuthering Heights, Lip Service’s comedic spoof Withering Looks and even an uncredited Sinead O’Connor walking the moors as Emily Bronte in a hooded cloak to book-end Peter Kosminsky’s 1992 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, the one starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
Above all, we have had and still have the Brontë books, books that broke their Victorian shackles to speak for themselves, beyond us knowing that the daughters of the Irish-born parson of Haworth, out on the wily, windy West Riding moors, all died all too young, along with their wastrel artist-poet brother Branwell, the first to exit stage left in a white nightgown.
Jess Murray’s Emily, right, and Millie Rhodes’s Anne: The ‘other’ Brontë and the ‘other other’ Brontë in Settlement Players’ Underdog: The Other Other Brontë. Picture: John Saunders
Just as Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss mash up history with punk modern sensibilities in enabling Henry VIII’s wives to give their side of the story in a competitive concert to be head girl in Six The Musical, so Gordon gives licence to Charlotte, Emily and Anne to do likewise in Underdog’s sisterly rivalries and jealousies and battles with the male-dominated Victorian publishing world of London, 17 hours away by horse and carriage.
As in Six, this introduces competition – flawed sisters doing it to themselves, rather than for themselves – but not on equal terms because Lara Stafford’s Charlotte is designated the role of narrator. Consequently, she tends to dominate, when ostensibly the title suggests the focus should be on the “other other Brontë”, Millie Rhodes’s sweet-natured Anne, “the one who died,” as Anne puts it.
That said, Gordon counters the narrator’s status by showing the ambitious, ruthless, envious Charlotte in anything but the best light, full of withering slights and maternally over-protective of Anne in particular, refusing permission for a posthumous re-print of The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall (and editing Emily’s poems for publication after her death to boot).
Underdog: The Other Other Brontë director Claire Morley. Picture: Tom Barker
Jess Murray’s Emily is an undiluted firebrand, with a temper and potty mouth, but somewhat underwritten by comparison with Anne and especially Charlotte.
Nick Patrick Jones’s Branwell can be heard shouting at his father in the background and in his infrequent appearances he feels like a ghost in this play, even before he is consigned to that status.
Alongside Jones, Jon Cook, Pamela Gourley and Maggie Smales are on multi-rolling duty, Smales taking the honours with her spoilt child, coconut-clip-clopping carriage driver and biographer Elizabeth Gaskell.
Maggie Smales’s spoilt brat Cunliffe and Jon Cook’s Mrs Ingham in Settlement Players’ Underdog: The Other Other Brontë. Picture: John Saunders
Claire Morley’s witty, wily and waspish production is played out with fiery pace and passion on Richard Hampton’s three-sided set of suspended wheat sheafs, page after page torn from books, three boxes bedecked in yet more words and the backdrop of a frame filled with flowers.
At its base is a sign reading “Liar” that Stafford’s Charlotte then places around the neck of Rhodes’s Anne, and yet not everything that Charlotte says can be taken as the truth. Literary licence, maybe; playwright’s impish, knowing humour, certainly.
The sisters are even more fun company than in Lip Service’s Withering Looks, full of surprises, sassy putdowns (not least of Jane Austen’s face being on a bank note) and sisterly interplay, played out to a soundtrack of Self Esteem, Charlie XCX and Billie Eilish snippets. It could have been deeper, it could have been darker, but that is the one story that has been told before.
Sisterly rivalries and jealousies in Sarah Gordon’s Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, as played out by Lara Stafford’s Charlotte, right, and Millie Rhodes’s Anne. Picture: John Saunders
On reflection, all the Brontë sisters can be seen as the underdog of the title, sisters with blisters, but fighting against cramped writing conditions, the Yorkshire chill that did for their health, and the inequality and cold shoulder of the book world’s stuffed shirts. The “other” here is as much the other side of their story as a desire to put Anne in the spotlight.
“Young women judge older women more harshly than anybody else…they are conditioned to,” says the spiky Charlotte, in one of her jibes delivered so deliciously by Stafford, whose outstanding performance is befitting of a professional stage.
York Settlement Community Players present Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Lara Stafford’s exasperated Charlotte holds her head in her hands as she listens to Maggie Smales’s over-zealous biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell, in the closing chapter of Underdog: The Other Other Brontë. Millie Rhodes’s Anne, back, left, and Jess Murray’s Emily look bemused. Picture: John Saunders
Weaving a different spin on The Odyssey: Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
FROM The Penelopiad’s feminist twist on The Odyssey to Miller’s Death Of A Salesman, the Brontë sisters’ other story to Jamie’s blossoming, Charles Hutchinson watches autumn find its fifth gear.
Greek tragedy twist of the week: Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, Odyssey: Her Story, York Theatre Royal, until October 31
BOOKER Prize winner Margaret Atwood revisits Homer’s The Odyssey in an exuberantly irreverent and darkly humorous retelling where she gives voice to Odysseus’s silenced wife, Penelope – still awaiting his return 20 years after the Trojan War – and her chorus of maids in a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge that exposes the truth behind the myth. Creative director Juliet Forster’s cast is led by Happy Valley and Riot Women star Amelia Bullmore. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jess Murray’s Emily, left, Lara Stafford’s Charlotte and Millie Rhodes’s Anne Brontë in York Settlement Community Players’ Underdog: The Other Other Brontë. Picture: John Saunders
York premiere of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
CHARLOTTE Brontë (played by Lara Stafford) has a confession about how one sister (Emily, Jess Murray) became an idol and the other became known as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one: Anne (Millie Rhodes).
Claire Morley directs Settlement Players in Sarah Gordon’s irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters as you have never seen the Yorkshire scribbling sisters before. Premiered at the National Theatre in 2024, this is not a story of well-behaved women but of the power of words, sisters and sisterhood, love and jealousy, support and competition. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds – Live! The Concert Experience! at York Barbican
Iconic score of the week: Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds – Live! The Concert Experience!, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
FOR the first time, audiences can experience a concert rendition of Jeff Wayne’s score for The War Of The Worlds, presented by Kilimanjaro, who bring the double album to life with West End performers, live band, orchestra and animation.
“For this concert tour, I’ll be stepping back from the podium,” says Wayne. “But the production will showcase exceptional artists from the West End and other major performing mediums, supported by a band, orchestra, animation and other concert elements. It will stand as a true companion to my arena tours.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Andy Studdart, as Willie Loman, and Linda Tester, as The Woman, Willy’s mistress, in 1812 Theatre Company’s Death Of A Salesman. Picture: Joe Coughlan
Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Death Of A Salesman, Helmsley Arts Centre, tomorrow until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
DIRECTED by Julie Lomas, Helmsley’s 1812 Theatre Company presents Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman, charting the last 24 hours of struggling salesman Willie Loman (played by Andy Studdart), who cannot understand how he failed to win success and happiness.
Through a series of tragic soul-searching revelations of the life he has lived with his wife, sons and business associates, we discover how his quest for the “American Dream” kept him blind to the people who truly loved him. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Jonathan Agnew: Cricket chat in An Evening With Aggers at Kirk Theatre, Pickering, tomorrow
Not just cricket: Jonathan Agnew, An Evening With Aggers, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, tomorrow, 7.30pm
TEST Match Special broadcaster and former BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew presents an evening of candid insights and anecdotes packed with humour and cricketing gold, iconic archive clips and previously unseen footage.
From covering the Olympic Games in Rio to commentating on the unforgettable Super Over finale of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, he reflects on the defining moments of his career and his days in the commentary box with Brian Johnston and Sir Geoffrey Boycott, with surprises aplenty too. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk
York Stage’s cast for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, led by Frankie Bounds as Jamie New, the Sheffield schoolboy with dreams
Bold and unapologetic musical of the week: York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, Friday to October 24; 7.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 4pm Sunday
TOM MacRae and Dan Gillespie’s Sheffield musical plays the Grand Opera House for the first time in Nik Briggs’s production for York Stage that restores the grit to both complement and counter the glitz in the uplifting underdog story of Jamie New (Frankie Bounds), a 16-year-old schoolboy from a Steel City council estate with big dreams and the courage to stand out when it would be easier to stay quiet.
Equipped with the love of his mum, the support of his friends and the strength to face the world head on, Jamie fights prejudice, finds his voice and discovers the freedom of stepping into the spotlight on his own terms. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Tom Stade: Dismantling rules and redefining them his way at York Barbican
Come and see for yourself why…Tom Stade Rules, YO1 Radio Live Lounge, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
CANADIAN free spirit Tom Stade takes aim at the absurdities of modern times with his incisive, gloriously unfiltered wit as he grapples with rebellion, responsibility and the tension between the old and the new. From unspoken social codes to cultural divisions, identity to marriage, Stade dismantles all the rules and redefines them his way. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ben Bowman in Michael Starring Ben
Recommended but sold out already: Michael Starring Ben, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
TAKE a journey back in time to recall Michael Jackson’s music and magic in Michael Starring Ben, featuring “the UK’s ultimate Michael Jackson tribute star”, Ben Bowman.
Neither associated with nor endorsed by the Michael Jackson Estate, this tribute to the King of Pop features a live band, dazzling costumes and Jackson’s iconic dance routines in its showcase of Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5’s greatest hits.
Samuel Moore: Flamenco guitarist in concert at Milton Rooms, Malton
Flamenco guitarist of the week: Samuel Moore, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 7.30pm
MESMERISING West Yorkshire flamenco guitarist, tutor and author Samuel Moore transports you to the heart of Spain in Saturday’s concert. Winner of the Manhattan International Music Competition in 2023 and Vienna International Music Competition in 2025, he has performed across the UK, Europe and North America, playing solo at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London.
Bringing to life the rich colours, rhythms, and sounds of Andalucía, his repertoire encompasses original compositions, traditional flamenco forms and masterworks by Ramón Montoya, Niño Ricardo and Sabicas. His 2019 debut album with classical guitarist Michael Christian Durrant, Guitar, The Heart Of Spain, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London; his solo debut, Camino Flamenco, will be released on November 20. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Alex Voysey: Leading Faux Bonamassa blues concert at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Blues gig of the week The Alex Voysey Blues Band presents Faux Bonamassa, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
ALEX Voysey was nominated for Contemporary Blues Artist of the Year, Album of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year in the 2025 UK Blues Federation Awards. Now his band re-imagines the musicianship of blues titan Joe Bonamassa, blending Bonamassa’s greatest songs of the past two decades with Voysey’s virtuosity, improvisation and contemporary blues mastery. Expect to hear Sloe Gin, The Ballad Of John Henry, Athens To Athens, Woke Up Dreaming, Dustbowl, A Conversation With Alice and Stop. Box office: kirktheatre.co.uk/events/alex-voysey.
Amelia Bullmore in rehearsal for her lead role as Penelope in The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
FROM The Penelopiad’s feminist twist on The Odyssey to Alan Carr testing new material, the Brontë sisters’ other story to Jamie’s blossoming, Charles Hutchinson Hutchinson watches autumn find its fifth gear.
Greek tragedy twist of the week: Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, Odyssey: Her Story, York Theatre Royal, today until October 31
BOOKER Prize winner Margaret Atwood revisits Homer’s The Odyssey in an exuberantly irreverent and darkly humorous retelling where she gives voice to Odysseus’s silenced wife, Penelope – still awaiting his return 20 years after the Trojan War – and her chorus of maids in a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge that exposes the truth behind the myth. Creative director Juliet Forster’s cast is led by Happy Valley and Riot Women star Amelia Bullmore. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Nancy Cadogan: Exhibiting At The Bend In The River at Beningbrough Hall from today
Exhibition opening of the week: At The Bend In The River: Paintings by Nancy Cadogan, Beningbrough Hall, Beningbrough, near York, today 11am to 4pm
LONDON figurative artist Nancy Cadogan explores how a place is shaped by memory, artistry and human connection in At The Bend In The River, an exhibition spread across four rooms of Beningbrough’s Reddihough Galleries that brings together newly commissioned large-scale paintings, drawings and immersive creative spaces that respond to the National Trust estate’s Ouse riverside setting, historic house and changing landscape.
Through art, film, drawing and creative writing, Cadogan invites visitors to “pause and reflect on the journeys we take and the places and memories that sustain us”. Look out too for intimate works that reflect on women, time and storytelling. Tickets (as part of National Trust admission): nationaltrust.org.uk/beningbrough.
Alan Carr: Two gigs in one day at Pocklington Arts Centre
Comedy gigs of the week: Alan Carr, Work In Progress, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow, 3pm and 7.30pm
THE Celebrity Traitors 2026 winner, comedian, television presenter and quiz host Alan Carr is heading to Pocklington for a brace of “very special work-in-progress shows” ahead of his Have I Said Too Much? tour, when he will play York Barbican on March 13 2027. Box office: Pocklington, pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; York, yorkbarbican.co.uk.
James Fountain: Trumpet soloist for York Guildhall Orchestra’s concert at York Barbican
Classical concert of the week: York Guildhall Orchestra, York Barbican, tomorrow, 3pm
YORK Guildhall Orchestra launches its new season with a Sunday afternoon programme of works by Malcolm Arnold, William Walton and Spanish composer and pianist Manuel de Falla.
Arnold’s ebullient Trumpet Concerto, composed in 1981, will be played by soloist James Fountain after the opening orchestral fanfare of Walton’s Crown Imperial. De Falla adapted his 1919 ballet Three Cornered Hat, featuring Spanish folk and dance music, into two orchestra suites; the second will be performed tomorrow. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jess Murray’s Emily, left, Lara Stafford’s Charlotte and Millie Rhodes’s Anne Brontë in York Settlement Community Players’ Underdog: The Other Other Brontë
York premiere of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 13 to 17, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
CHARLOTTE Brontë (played by Lara Stafford) has a confession about how one sister (Emily, Jess Murray) became an idol, and the other became known as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one: Anne (Millie Rhodes).
Claire Morley directs Settlement Players in Sarah Gordon’s irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters as you have never seen the Yorkshire scribbling sisters before. Premiered at the National Theatre in 2024, this not a story of well-behaved women but of the power of words, sisters and sisterhood, love and jealousy, support and competition. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Henry Raby: Wrestling with the twin emotions of hope and anger at The Old Paint Shop
Poetry gig of the week: The Old Paint Shop presents Henry Raby, Hope and Anger, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 14, 8pm
YORK punk poet and Say Owt artistic director Henry Raby wrestles through the twin emotions of hope and anger with a spoken-word cocktail of poetry and comedy as he seeks to understand the righteous and the rotten. “Come and share in fist-clenched frustration and celebrate examples of the world, and the heartfelt people in it, at their shiniest and brightest,” says Henry. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
“Reaching 25 years in music is incredibly emotional,” says York Barbican-bound Katherine Jenkins
“Reunion with old friends” of the week: Katherine Jenkins, 25 Year Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, October 15, 7.30pm
WELSH mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, 46, the biggest-selling classical artist of the 21st century, plays York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue on her 25 Year Anniversary Tour, her first in five years. “Reaching 25 years in music is incredibly emotional, but this tour is truly a celebration of the fans who have been there from the very beginning,” she says.
“To be heading out across the UK and Ireland for 18 special shows feels less like a celebration of a career and more like a reunion with old friends, and I can’t wait to stand on stage, look out into those familiar faces and share it all over again.” Jodok Cello supports. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
York Stage’s cast for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, starring Frankie Bounds as Jamie New
Bold and unapologetic musical of the week: York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, October 16 to 24, 7.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 4pm Sunday
TOM MacRae and Dan Gillespie’s Sheffield musical plays the Grand Opera House for the first time in Nik Briggs’s production for York Stage that restores the grit to both complement and counter the glitz in the uplifting underdog story of Jamie New (Frankie Bounds), a 16-year-old schoolboy from a Steel City council estate with big dreams and the courage to stand out when it would be easier to stay quiet.
Equipped with the love of his mum, the support of his friends and the strength to face the world head on, Jamie fights prejudice, finds his voice and discovers the freedom of stepping into the spotlight on his own terms. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Tom Stade: Playing by his rules at York Barbican
Come and see for yourself why…Tom Stade Rules, YO1 Radio Live Lounge, York Barbican, October 16, 7.30pm
CANADIAN free spirit Tom Stade takes aim at the absurdities of modern times with his incisive, gloriously unfiltered wit as he grapples with rebellion, responsibility and the tension between the old and the new. From unspoken social codes to cultural divisions, identity to marriage, Stade dismantles all the rules and redefines them his way. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Eija Gibson’s cast at the read-through rehearsal for It’s A Wonderful Life at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
THE cast is in place for Theatre@41, Monkgate’s debut community Christmas production, It’s A Wonderful Life, adapted for the stage by Mary Elliot Nelson.
Rehearsals have begun already under director Eija Gibson, who has picked a 13-strong troupe of York performers for the production run from December 10 to 23. Some have performed previously at the independent theatre, joined by actors new to the venue.
Eija says: “I am absolutely thrilled to have cast such a talented, creative group of community actors. I am so excited to be working with each and every one of them and see the magic this collaboration creates.”
Eija Gibson: Director of Theatre@ 41’s community production of It’s A Wonderful Life
Mary Elliott Nelson’s stage adaptation of Frank Capra’s festive film – premiered in New York City on December 20 1946 – follows down-on-his-luck banker George Bailey as he is paid a visit by his guardian angel on Christmas Eve 1946.
George will be played by Theatre@41 chair and actor Alan Park, who last performed at the black box theatre in 2023, when he starred in Duncan Macmillan’s one-man show, Every Brilliant Thing, and White Rabbit Red Rabbit with Black Treacle Theatre.
The Bailey family will feature Cassi Roberts as Mary Hatch Bailey, Paul Stonehouse as Uncle Billy and Matthew Wignall in his Theatre@41 debut as Harry Bailey, along with Samantha Goddard as Angel Josephine and Sarah Walker as Violet.
Alan Park: Cast in the lead role of George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life
Sonia Di Lorenzo: Playing George Bailey’s guardian angel in It’s A Wonderful Life
The role of George’s guardian angel goes to Sonia Di Lorenzo, while Dara Klymenko, founder of York’s Ukrainian theatre company DSpace, will play Angel Gloria, as well as joining the creative team as movement director.
In the shoes of antagonist Mr Potter will be Rory Mulvihill, following up his role as temperamental, egotistical director Lloyd Dallas in Pick Me Up Theatre’s production of Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off this week at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.
Mark Simmonds, Paul French, Darren Barrott and Lily Geering complete the cast, playing an array of eccentric characters that make up the town of Bedford Falls.
Matthew Wignall: Making his Theatre@41 debut as Harry Bailey
Dara Klymenko: Playing Angel Gloria
Theatre@41 is looking for volunteers to fill backstage roles, including stage managers, set builders, painters and props gatherers. Those interested are encouraged to send an email to [email protected] to find out more.
Theatre@41 trustee Livy Potter says: “Theatre@41 is a volunteer-powered theatre and we’re incredibly proud of this. Over the past five years, we’ve helped dozens of residents learn about putting on shows and creating theatre with and for communities in York.
“We’re keen for this production to be an opportunity for the people of the city to develop new skills whilst bringing the world of Bedford Falls to life in our studio theatre. We can’t wait to throw a lasso around the moon to re-create the most life affirming of Christmas stories.”
Theatre@41, Monkgate, York presents It’s A Wonderful Life for 14 performances from December 10 to 23. Performances: 7.30pm (except Dec 13, 14 and 21) plus 2pm, December 12, 13 and 19. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
Cassi Roberts: Cast as Mary Hatch Bailey
Theatre@41’s poster for this winter’s community production, It’s A Wonderful Life
Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Geri Essendine and Seb Carrington’s David Stillington in Present Laughter. Picture: Simon Annand
FROM classic Coward in Present Laughter to Frayn’s funniest farce, Noises Off, Alan Carr’s work in progress to Joe Jackson’s hope and fury, Charles Hutchinson piles up the good stuff for the week ahead.
Coward classic of the week: Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Augusta Productions present Present Laughter, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
TRACY-ANN Oberman stars as hugely successful actress Geri Essendine – who has been 39 for the best part of a decade – in Lindsay Posner’s new touring production of Noel Coward’s celebrated portrayal of the temptations and pitfalls of theatrical celebrity.
On the cusp of departing for a tour of Africa, Geri finds herself besieged by a bevy of would-be lovers, her long-suffering secretary, estranged husband and an obsessed young playwright. Will she ever disentangle herself from their tightening clutches and incessant demands? Then again, deep down, does she really want to? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Pick Me Up Theatre cast members Pearl Mollison, left, Craig Kirby, Alexandra Mather, Andrew Isherwood, Helen Spencer, Adrian Cook and Mark Simmonds, under the withering eye of Rory Mulvihill, right, director of the play-within-the-play in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off
Slamming doors, falling trousers and flying sardines of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Noises Off, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
MICHAEL Frayn’s backstage farce Noises Off takes a wicked look at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss and passionate affairs turns every performance into a high-risk adventure.
This play-within-a-play captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of Nothing On in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance and a performance towards the end of a debilitating run. Robert Readman directs a stellar York cast of Helen Spencer, Andrew Isherwood, Alexandra Mather, Rory Mulvihill, Pearl Mollison, Mark Simmonds, Craig Kirby, Jessica Hardcastle and Adrian Cook. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Joe Jackson: Returning to York Barbican tonight
Yorkgig of the week: Joe Jackson + Band, Hope And Fury Tour 2026, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
JOE Jackson played York for only the second time at York Barbican on July 29 2022 as part of his Sing, You Sinners! Tour, having first shared a bill with Todd Rundgren and improvisational string quartet Ethel at the Grand Opera House in June 2005.
Now, the Portsmouth-raised singer, musician, songwriter, bandleader, producer, author and campaigner, 72, returns with his regular band to perform work from throughout his career and to showcase his 23rd studio album Hope And Fury, released in April. Conner Youngblood supports. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Screening accompanied by live orchestra
Visual journey of the week: Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert, 20th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm
The 20th Anniversary Tour of Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert combines a live orchestral performance with a two-hour visual journey through fan-favourite moments from the animated series, shown on a full-size cinema screen.
This special edition features new surprises, inviting fans to experience the story in a new light. Original dialogue and sound effects remain intact, while Emmy Award-winning composer Jeremy Zuckerman’s score is performed live, synchronised with the visuals. From taiko and erhu to strings and clarinets, the orchestra brings every moment to life, immersing you in the elemental world of Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko and the rest of Team Avatar. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
An artwork by Angela Hall from the York Created exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York
York exhibition of the week:York Created: Paint-Clay-Print-Collage From The Heart Of The City, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until November 14
YORK Created: Paint-Clay-Print-Collage From The Heart Of The City features a “collection of talented artists from across our fair city”. “Some have exhibited with us before, others are new to us,” says Pyramid Gallery manager Fiona Macfarlane. “All the works are for sale.”
Taking part are potters Danny Aitkin, Chiu-i Wu, Loretta Braganza, Ben Arnup, Emily Stubbs, Jessica Jenyns and Ruth King, painters Rory Barke, Carolyn Coles, Jill Tattersall, Ric Liptrot, Lesley Birch, Mick Leach, Lesley Shaw and Angela Hall and stained glass artist Helen Bower. Opening hours are 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.
Tom Carradine & Lili Redman: Wartime music, merriment and memories at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Festival of the week: Pickering 1940s Weekend, V For Victory, Johnny Victory, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Friday, 7.30pm; Tom Carradine’s Wartime Songbook , Sunday, 7.30pm
JOHNNY Victory opens the Pickering 1940s weekend on Friday by heading back to the good old days to guide singalongs of vintage songs that helped to keep wartime morale high and brought us together. Johnny combines songs from music hall days, 1920s, 1930s and 1940s’ wartime hits and show tunes with a warm, cheeky humour.
On Sunday, moustachioed maestro Tom Carradine leads a joyous, toe-tapping celebration of the songs that kept Great Britain smiling through two World Wars in a nostalgic show packed with rousing classics, history, humour and stories behind the songs, such as the tragic tale of the Powell brothers who wrote Pack Up Your Troubles. Joining Tom will be cabaret songbird Lili Redman, his podcast co-host of The A To Z Of Wartime Song, to perform Gracie Fields, Vera Lynn and deliciously cheeky numbers. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Victoria Firth in Batty!: Exploration of “the wildness – as opposed to madness – of women” at Helmsley Arts Centre
Alternative coming-of-age story of the week: Victoria Firth in Batty!, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
WRITTEN and performed by Victoria Firth and directed by Natasha Holmes, Batty! is the story of a woman who fears she might be a witch: an ordinary woman stuck with an extraordinary shape-shifting companion, a wild thing. This curious twosome shares a disintegrating cottage in a forest on the cusp of another world that lies beyond responsibilities and social norms and where myths and magic are real.
Featuring an original soundscape and live song, Batty! combines “the intimacy of private conversations, raucous stories, snorting humour, gay abandon and exquisite tenderness” in its exploration of “the wildness – as opposed to madness – of women and how our feral side can reconnect us to ourselves and our environment”. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Celya AB: Saturday Night Live UK writer on stage at Theatre@41
How to break free from shame, as advised by: Celya AB, We Must Stop Meeting Like This, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday, 8pm
HAVE you ever forensically over-thought your life choices? Are they all somehow connected to a passing comment your Spanish teacher made when you were 15? Has it made an impact on everything from your love life to your career? Stand-up comedian and Saturday Night Live UK writer Celya AB’s new show focuses on breaking free from shame and what ensues when you do. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
The Paul Simon Songbook, performed by Alastair James and his seven-piece band at Helmsley Arts Centre
Tribute gig of the week: The Paul Simon Songbook, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
ALASTAIR James and his seven-piece band highlight the carefully crafted arrangements inspired by Paul Simon’s most iconic live and studio performances, featuring renditions of Mrs Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Scarborough Fair, Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover, Still Crazy After All These Years, Late In The Evening, You Can Call Me Al and Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Brodsky Quartet: Playing chamber concert at Helmsley Arts Centre on Sunday
Classical concert of the week: Brodsky Quartet, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 2.30pm
SINCE forming in 1972 as the Cleveland Quartet in Middlesbrough, the Brodsky Quartet has performed more than 3,000 chamber music concerts on the major stages of the world and released 70-plus recordings.
The quartet’s name is taken from the Russian violinist Adolf Brodsky, himself a passionate chamber musician, and the 2026 line-up comprises Krysia Osostowicz and Ian Belton, violins, Paul Cassidy, viola, and Jacqueline Thomas, cello. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Alan Carr: Testing out new material in two gigs in one day at Pocklington Arts Centre
Comedy gigs of the week: Alan Carr, Work In Progress, Pocklington Arts Centre, Sunday, 3pm and 7.30pm
THE Celebrity Traitors 2026 winner, comedian, television presenter and quiz host Alan Carr is heading to Pocklington Arts Centre for a brace of “very special work-in-progress shows” ahead of his Have I Said Too Much? tour, when he will play York Barbican on March 13 2027. Box office: Pocklington, pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; York, yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Bread & Circuses, by Sarah Hall Baqai, from her exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York
FROM the terrors of Paranormal Activity to circus art, York’s four-day jazz festival to Brian Bilston’s egg-laying poetry, Charles Hutchinson looks ahead to October cultural opportunities.
Exhibition opening of the week: Sarah Hall Baqai, Bread & Circuses, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until November 19
YORK artist Sarah Hall Baqai’s new collection of artworks has the theme of Bread & Circuses, a phrase taken from Roman poet Juvenal’s work Satire X, written in 100AD. In a nutshell, “give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”, on account of being distracted.
Distraction does not come brighter and more entertaining visually than Sarah’s paintings inspired by life behind the scenes at the circus (from her work with Gifford’s Circus and Fools Delight Circus at Ham Court, Bampton), complemented by lettering and graphic work celebrating York Minster and willow lanterns in the shape of jugglers’ sticks.
James Bye’s James arms himself with a baseball bat in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Credit: Johan Persson
Psychological thriller of the week: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
IN a new story inspired by the worldwide horror phenomenon, Paranormal Activity is directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and written by Levi Holloway, the playwright behind Broadway hit Grey House.
When James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that places are not haunted, but people are. Can you hold your nerve in the face of this chilling production on its first British and Irish tour? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Roham Bayat’s poster for the inaugural YorkJazzFest
Festival of the week: YorkJazzFest, tomorrow to Sunday
BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinicria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural YorkJazzFest with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.
Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale on Sunday, topped off by sets by Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk and Ian Chalk. For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.
Masked up: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus. Picture supplied
Devil in the detail of the week: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York , tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre delivers a devilishly clever new twist on Doctor Faustus, placing a woman, Doctor Joan Faustus, at the epicentre of Christopher Marlowe’s late-16th century cautionary tale of ambition, temptation and damnation.
Director Lydia McCudden plays Faustus, who strikes a terrible deal by selling her soul to Lucifer in exchange for knowledge, power and worldly pleasures, only to encounter the Seven Deadly Sins. Cue masks, commedia dell’arte, dark comedy and gothic tragedy as Hell awaits. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Ben Portsmouth: Performing Presley’s pearls with his Taking Care Of Elvis Band at York Barbican
King of The King tribute shows: Ben Portsmouth: This Is Elvis, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
REGARDED as the “closest living performer to the legendary Elvis Presley”, Ben Portsmouth has enjoyed success in more than 20 countries and became the first European to be crowned by Elvis Presley Enterprises as the Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist in Memphis in 2012.
This Is Elvis takes an immersive journey through Presley’s greatest hits from his rockabilly roots to the dazzling Las Vegas years in the company of Portsmouth and the Taking Care Of Elvis Band. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican: Satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments from Barnsley
“Sexy knitwear” gig of the week: The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7.30pm
FOUNDED in Barnsley Rock City in 2006 by their outspoken and energetic ringleader Scott Doonican, The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican are on a mission.
Anything but a typical folk ensemble, this collective of like-minded knitwear enthusiasts – Scott, Mo-Jo Doonican, Dave Doonican and the Reight Reverend Jeremiah Rickenbacker III – are determined to follow in their spiritual father’s immortal footsteps, keeping his legacy alive while Bar-Stewardising other famous people’s songs with satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments, from Jump Ararnd to Goat Yoga. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Mark Harrison Band: Songs and stories at Helmsley Arts Centre
Where folk meets the blues: Mark Harrison Band, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
MARK Harrison writes original songs for today in the spirit of the great troubadours, coupled with stories to make you smile, move and think in a world where blues, roots and folk collide.
Finger-picking and slide guitarist Harrison is joined by Charles Benfield on double bass and Ben Welburn on drums and percussion to create a rhythm section that defies convention, as heard on eight albums to date. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Alchemy Live: Performing the songs of Dire Straits at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
In Dire Straits: Alchemy Live, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
ALCHEMY Live were formed in 2020 by life-long Mark Knopfler fans and full-time musicians Martin Ledger and Neil Scott, who used the Covid pandemic and resultant lockdowns to put their Dire Straits tribute project in motion. Rehearsals started in 2021 after the worst of the pandemic was over, their first show being scheduled in York for Friday the 13th of May 2022 (what could possibly go wrong)?
They have never looked back, progressing to playing theatres since 2023. “It’s always been our ethos to concentrate on getting the music and sound right, rather than just putting on headbands and shiny jackets,” says frontman Ledger. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Brian Bilston: Showcasing his latest poetry collection at Milton Rooms, Malton
Poet of the week: Brian Bilston, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm
BRIAN Bilston, a poet with more than 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage this autumn with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day.
Bilston has published such collections as You Took The Last Bus Home, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? and Days Like These, along with debut novel Diary Of A Somebody, poetry for younger readers and his 2025 album of poetry set to music, Sounds Made By Humans, recorded in collaboration with The Catenary Wires. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Olly Murs: Enjoying a Knees Up at Live At York Museum Gardens next July
Gig announcement of the week: Futuresound presents Olly Murs, Live At York Museum Gardens, July 9 2027
ESSEX singer-songwriter and The Voice UK coach Olly Murs is the first headline act to be confirmed for next summer’s Live At York Museum Gardens 2027 season, when the event will be expanded to two weekends for the first time. Special guests for that day’s bill are still to be announced.
Murs, 42, returns to the York outdoors after his hat trick of appearances at York Racecourse in 2010, 2017 and 2024. He rose to fame on The X Factor in 2009, since when he has released eight studio albums of pop, indie, ska and disco, the latest being last November’s Knees Up. Box office: York postcode pre-sale from today at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256?pre=postcode; general sale from Friday, 10am, at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256.
In Focus: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 1, 7.30pm, October 2, 2pm, and October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque. Picture: Johan Persson
IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance. Emerging from the 17th and 18th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.
Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.
Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.
“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.
“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first-ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”
Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”
Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.
Andonis Foniadakis says: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.
Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.
“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”
Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.
Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”
A Q&A with the company will follow tomorrow’s performance. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.
The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.
Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”
A post-show discussion with the company will follow Thursday’s 7.30pm show. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.
The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
