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More Things To Do in York and beyond as the summer of love arrives early. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 21 for 2023, from The Press

A study of people studying People We Love’s digital portraits in the Chapel at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham

LOVE lost and found is all around in Charles Hutchinson’s picks from the shelf marked culture.

Goin’ to the chapel of love: People We Love, Castle Howard, near York, until October 15, 10am to 4pm

AFTER gracing York Minster twice, Pittsburgh, USA, Viborg, Denmark, and Selby Abbey, North Yorkshire, KMA’s latest contemplative digital art installation takes over the Chapel at Castle Howard, a setting that provides a contrast between portraiture old and new. Produced by York-based Mediale and designed by Kit Monkman, People We Love explores “the invisible transaction between a person, a piece of art and the emotion which bonds us all: love”.

A quintet of high-definition screens display portraits of estate staff and volunteers, Castle Howard visitors and Ryedale residents, filmed in March, as they gaze at a picture of someone they love. A picture you never see, but you will feel each unspoken story as the faces tell the tale of a person they love.

Alexandra Mather’s Adina, left, in York Opera’s The Elixir Of Love

Opera of the weekend: York Opera in The Elixir Of Love, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, today at 7.30pm

WILL Nemorino, a simple village farm lad, ever find love without the help of a magic potion? Discover the answer in Donizetti’s comic opera L’Elisere d’Amore, packed with light-hearted music sung in an English translation by Ruth and Thomas Martin with orchestral accompaniment.

Under the direction of Chris Charlton-Mathews, principal roles go to Hamish Brown as the lovelorn, lovable Nemorino; stalwart Ian Thompson-Smith as opportunistic Doctor Dulcamara; David Valsamidies as the boastful Belcore; Alexandra Mather as the intelligent, beautiful Adina and Emma Burke in her York Opera debut as the flirtatious Giannetta. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Harvey Badger, Eddie Ahrens, Hannah Baker and Rachel Hammond in Mikron Theatre Company’s Twitchers

Bird song of the week: Mikron Theatre Company in Twitchers, Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, Sunday (21/5/2023), 2pm, and on tour until October 21

IN Mikron Theatre Company’s premiere of Poppy Hollman’s Twitchers, Springwatch is coming to RSPB Shrikewing nature reserve, home to raucous rooks and booming bitterns.

Can Jess take inspiration from the RSPB’s tenacious female founders and draw on its history of campaigning to save them? Can she find her own voice to raise a rallying cry for nature in Mikron’s flight through RSPB and birdwatching history, feathered with bird song and humour. No reserved seating or tickets are required, and instead a ‘pay what you feel’ collection will be taken after the show.

Kate Rusby: On song at Harrogate Royal Hall on Monday

Folk gig of the week: Kate Rusby, Harrogate Royal Hall, Monday, 7.30pm

BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby rounds off a year of 30th anniversary celebrations with an 18-date spring tour, in the wake of releasing her 30: Happy Returns compendium last May to acknowledge three decades as a professional musician.

Coming later this year will be Kate’s Established 1973 Christmas Tour, visiting York Barbican on December 7, three days after she turns 50: a landmark she will mark with her sixth album of South Yorkshire pub carols and winter songs. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; York, yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Beware the Green Fingers: Fladam’s Flo Poskitt and Adam Sowter launch their debut children’s show at York Theatre Royal

Children’s show of the week: Fladam, Green Fingers, TakeOver Festival, York Theatre Royal, May 27, 3pm

GREEN Fingers is a work-in-progress performance to test out madcap York musical comedy double act Fladam’s first foray into family theatre ahead of its full debut at this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Flo Poskitt and Adam Sowter present a deliciously Roald Dahl-style musical storytelling show for children aged five to 12 about a boy born with bright green hands. Is he really rotten or just misunderstood? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Amy May Ellis: Back at The Band Room

Homeward bound: Amy May Ellis, The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, May 27, 7.30pm

BEWITCHING ambient Yorkshire rose folkster Amy May Ellis makes an overdue return to her “local” moorland venue, where she has opened for Hiss Golden Messenger, Willy Mason, Michael Chapman, Ryley Walker and Howe Gelb since teen days…and always brought the house down.

This time she is touring her debut album, Over Ling And Bell, released on Isle of Eigg’s cult Lost Map Records, home of Pictish Trail and one-time Lost Map Sessions singer and songwriter James Yorkston, with whom Amy has toured. Wanderland and Nessy Williamson support. Box office: thebandroom.co.uk.

Awaiting his coat of many colours: Jonathan Wells in rehearsal for his title role in York Musical Theatre Company’s Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat

Musical of the week: York Musical Theatre Company in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

KATHRYN Addison directs York Musical Theatre Company in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1968 debut musical: the biblical journey of Joseph, son of Jacob and one of 12 brothers, and his coat of many colours.

From the book of Genesis to the musical’s genesis as a cantata written for a school choir, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has grown into an iconic musical theatre staple. Here husband and wife Jonathan Wells and Jennie Wogan-Wells lead the cast as Joseph and the Narrator. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Richard E Grant: Reflecting on love and loss at the Grand Opera House, York

Talk show of the week: An Evening With Richard E Grant, Grand Opera House, York, Friday, 7.30pm

ACTOR Richard E Grant tells stories from his life, entwining tales from his glittering career with uplifting reflections on love and loss, as told in last September’s memoir, A Pocketful Of Happiness.

Grant will be considering the inspiration behind the book – how, when his beloved wife Joan died in 2021 after almost 40 years together, she set him a challenge of finding a pocketful of happiness in every day. The book and now the tour show honour that challenge. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Leon Francois Dumont’s Ring Of Fire: Not one of the “life drawings” but featuring in the Donderdag Collective exhibition nonetheless at Pyramid Gallery, York

York exhibition launch of the week: The Donderdag Collective, Artists And The Human Form, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, York, today, from 11am, until June 25

FOUNDED in 2011 by a group of artists in York, The Donderdag Collective members – both professionals and keen amateurs – meet at St Olave’s Church Hall, in Marygate Lane, on Thursday evenings to sketch or paint from a life model (‘Donderdag’ being Dutch for ‘Thursday’).

Taking part in this resulting show are: Julie Mitchell; Rory Barke; Bertt deBaldock; Diane Cobbold; Carolyn Coles; Leon Francois Dumont; Jeanne Godfrey; Anna Harding; Adele Karmazyn; Michelle Galloway; Andrian Melka; Kate Pettitt; Swea Sayers; Barbara Shaw and Donna Maria Taylor.

Dame Joan Collins: Going Behind The Shoulder Pads at the Grand Opera House in October

Show announcement of the week: Dame Joan Collins, Behind The Shoulder Pads, Grand Opera House, York, October 2, 7.30pm

TO coincide with the release of her memoir Behind The Shoulder Pads, Hollywood legend, author, producer, humanitarian and entrepreneur Dame Joan Collins, who will turn 90 on May 23, will embark on a tour with husband Percy Gibson by her side.

Returning to the Grand Opera House, where they presented Unscripted in February 2019, they will field audience questions and tell seldom-told tales and enchanting anecdotes, accompanied by rare footage from Dame Joan’s seven decades in showbusiness. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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Mikron Theatre give humans the bird in Poppy Hollman’s rallying call for nature and the RSPB in birdwatching play Twitchers

Bird watch: Mikron Theatre Company cast members Eddie Ahrens, Hannah Baker, Rachel Hammond and Harvey Badger in Poppy Hollman’s Twitchers. Picture: Anthony Robling

POPPY Hollman is on song in her second commission for Mikron Theatre Company.

After A Dog’s Tale in 2021, the Marsden company is undertaking a nationwide tour of Twitchers, her new play about birds, birders and the work and history of the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

As part of Mikron’s 51st season, Twitchers will be on its travels by land and water from April 7 to October 21, visiting York on Sunday afternnon in the company’s regular May slot at Scarcroft Allotments, a suitably outdoor setting for a play rich with bird song.

“It’s like an itch I can’t stop scratching: writing about animals,” says Poppy. “First dogs, now birds [Mikron had already done a play about bees and beekeeping, Deborah McAndrew’s Beyond The Veil in 2013].”

In Poppy’s story, performed by debutant Mikron actor-musicians Eddie Ahrens, Hannah Baker, Harvey Badger and Rachel Hammond, Springwatch is coming to the RSPB Shrikewing nature reserve (“notionally in Yorkshire, but completely fictional,” says Poppy).

From raucous rooks to booming bitterns, the birds of Shrikewing are its stars, but can Jess take inspiration from the RSPB’s tenacious female founders and draw on its history of campaigning to save them? What’s more, can she find her own voice to raise a rallying cry for nature?

“Twitchers is about the RSPB, Europe’s largest conservation charity, and their struggles to protect birds and wildlife since 1889,” says Poppy. “The play offers a fun swoop into the colourful world of birds and birdwatching. Our feathered friends are the real stars of the show; you’ll see them flirting, bickering and making their own indelible impression on the plot.”

Twitchers is nevertheless “driven by the human story”. “It’s a modern-day account of what the RSPB is coming up against in its work. Set on a bird reserve, it gives the human side of the story through telling the history of the RSPB – in the way you can do that in two 45-minute halves in a Mikron show.

“The RSPB was started in 1889 by four indomitable women, before women had the vote and pre-dating other wildlife organisations too. They were seeking to stop the trade in feathers and exotic plumes, mainly for hats,” says Poppy. 

“That trade was worth the equivalent of £200 million today, so it was incredibly valuable, and at the time women were not only wearing feathers but dead birds too, and they did so well into the 20th century.

“But in the 1920s, a ban on the import of feathers was finally secured. Gradually the campaigners had made that trade seem so unsanitary and so cruel.”

The dilemma, the dichotomy, that we face more than ever in our age of climate change is how humanity can destroy yet have the potential to save nature. “One RSPB worker in the play says, ‘it would be best of we just closed down and left nature to itself’, but actually that would not be a good idea,” says Poppy.

The RSPB’s membership of one million and volunteer workforce of 12,000 would testify to the importance of their shared concern. “The area covered by RSPB reserves is four times the size of the Isle of Wight, so they need that membership and the volunteers in order to do such vital work, with events like the Big Garden Birdwatch, held every January, when we gain an accurate count of our native birds,” says Poppy.

“The Operation Osprey campaign launched in 1959 was a very important turning point for the RSPB, when these birds were endangered because of egg collectors. By raising awareness of the osprey’s plight, they made it harder for the [egg-collecting] crime to happen.”

Mikron’s multi-talented cast will play the birds in Poppy’s play. “Two of the main characters are a pair of rooks, Barry and Freda, who take on the role of the Greek chorus, commenting on what’s going on at Shrikewing,” she says.

“They see the challenges that are going on in trying to run a reserve and all the problems that go with that. Like the pollution incident, where yet again humans have done something that threatens life there.”

Bird song: Hannah Baker, left, Eddie Ahrens, Harvey Badger and Rachel Hammond in a scene from Twitchers. Picture: Anthony Robling

Poppy’s own love, appreciation and awareness of birds dates back to her childhood. “I grew up in a village in north Buckinghamshire, and I now live only 20 miles away from there in Bedfordshire,” she says.

“I’ve noticed how we no longer see the birds I saw as a child: the chaffinches and the starlings. I’ve definitely developed more of a relationship with birds in my garden, buying feeders.

“A lot of young birders now do low-carbon birding, travelling by bicycle, or focusing on the patch around them, avoiding creating massive emissions by not travelling great distances to go birdwatching. They’re a very inspiring generation, really helping nature.”

Such positivity is extended to the play’s finale. “I wanted to end it on a high, even though optimism is quite hard with what we’re doing to our planet right now, but the people who work at the RSPB reserves are so passionate and optimistic about what they do,” says Poppy.

“I’ve tried to not make it too polemical. Someone described it as ‘quietly polemical’ and I agree with that.”

Mikron Theatre Company in Twitchers, Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, Sunday (21/5/2023), 2pm. No reserved seating or tickets are required, and instead a ‘pay what you feel’ collection will be taken after the show.

Twitchers is on tour nationally by canal, river and road until October 21, in tandem with Mikron’s premiere of Amanda Whittington’s A Force To Be Reckoned With. Full tour details at www.mikron.org.uk.

Playwright Poppy Hollman

Poppy Hollman: the back story

TWITCHERS is Poppy’s second play for Mikron Theatre Company.

Her first, 2021’s A Dog’s Tale, was commissioned after she took part in the Mikron New Writer’s Scheme in 2018.

Her other plays include Bells Of Turvey (community play, 2017); Little Shining Eyes (No Loss Productions and Lifebox Productions, Bedfringe 2019); Moon Calf (2019) and Nobody Talked (Glass Splinters, Pleasance Theatre London, 2020).

As well as writing plays, Poppy works as a creative producer for the Living Archive in Milton Keynes.

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Mikron Theatre highlight pioneering policewomen in Amanda Whittington’s A Force To Be Reckoned With premiere

Eddie Ahrens, left, Rachel Hammond, Hannah Baker and Harvey Badger in Mikron Theatre Company’s A Force To Be Reckoned With. Picture: Anthony Robling

MIKRON Theatre Company are pursuing enquiries into the role of the pioneering women of Britain’s police force in Amanda Whittington’s new play A Force To Be Reckoned With.

After opening at the West Yorkshire company’s home of the Marsden Mechanics Hall on May 13, the premiere will be on tour nationally by canal, river and road until October 21, taking in Clements Hall, in York, on September 17 at 4pm.

Press performances will be at The Wetherby Whaler, Guiseley, tomorrownight and the Greater Manchester Police Museum & Archives, Manchester, on Saturday afternoon.

Billed as “more Heartbeat than Happy Valley”, A Force To Be Reckoned With captures a century of change in an arresting story directed by Gitka Buttoo with music by Greg Last and design by Celia Perkins.

In the cast are four actor-musician new to Mikron’s entertaining, enlightening and educational brand of theatre: Hannah Baker, Harvey Badger, Eddie Ahrens and Rachel Hammond, who played the punkish, free-spirited Peggy, one of the Amazons sisters, in Swallows And Amazons, Damian Cruden’s farewell production after 22 years as artistic director at York Theatre Royal in July-August 2019.

Equipped with a handbag, whistle and a key to the police box, WPC Iris Armstrong is ready for whatever the mean streets of a 1950s’ market town throws at her.

Fresh from police training school, she prepares for her first day on the beat. The reality is different, however. Stuck at the station, she soon finds her main jobs are typing and making brews.

Whereupon Iris joins forces with fellow WPC Ruby Roberts: an unlikely partnership, a two-girl department, called to any case involving women and children, from troublesome teens to fraudulent fortune tellers.

What starts as “women’s work” soon becomes a specialist role, one where Iris finds she is earning her place in a historic force to be reckoned with. 

Along the way, she discovers the Edwardian volunteers who came before her, a lineage of Suffragettes-turned-moral enforcers, and the secrets that the police box hides.

Amanda Whittington made her Mikron debut with her women’s football drama Atalanta Forever in 2021 in a career that has accrued more than 40 plays, such as Be My Baby, The Thrill Of Love, Kiss Me Quick and her Ladies trilogy, plus seven series of D For Dexter and episodes of The Archers for BBC Radio 4.

“I’m delighted to be back at Mikron in their 51st year with A Force To Be Reckoned With.  The play takes a light-hearted look at the lives of Women Police Constables in the 1950s, celebrating their spirit, optimism and heroic efforts to break the glass ceiling without a truncheon.”  

Based in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, Mikron have toured 68 productions over the past 51 years, spending more than 37,000 boating hours on board the vintage narrowboat Tyseley.

They perform their shows in unexpected places: a play about growing your own veg on an allotment; one about bees, staged next to hives; another about fish and chips, in a fish and chip restaurant; hostelling, in YHA youth hostels; the RNLI, at several lifeboat stations. Now into a sixth decade, the company has stacked up 5,300 performances, playing to 440,000 people. 

A Force To Be Reckoned With is touring through the summer months alongside Twitchers, Poppy Hollman’s new play about the history of the RSPB (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), full of birdsong and laughter.

Dates include a 2pm open-air performance at Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, on Sunday, when no reserved seating or tickets are required, and instead a ‘pay what you feel’ collection will be taken after the show.

For tour dates and information on A Force To Be Reckoned With, visit http://mikron.org.uk