REVIEW: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York

Isobel Staton’s beatific Mary in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders

YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s new interpretation of the Nativity moves on to St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, tonight (5/12/2024) and tomorrow, then St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, on Saturday.

This chimes with the need to move in a story set in a time of threat when a homeless couple and their newborn baby are driven from home by oppressors.

Past productions have taken place in the Spurriergate Centre in York city centre, but taking a community production out into the community is a potent way to spread the message, all the more so in a year when taking flight has regularly been in the headlines.

CharlesHutchPress attended the Saturday matinee at The Tithe Barn in Nether Poppleton, the most spartan of the three locations, with its bare brickwork and stone-flagged floor, and therefore the closest in spirit to the stable in Bethlehem, albeit bigger and warmer, once the mulled wine served on arrival settled in.

Minstrel/balladeer Jonathan Brockbank sets the tone on Early Music whistle and drum instruments, later accompanying the Angel Choir of Emily Hansen, Trisha Campbell, Val Burgess, Wilma Edwards and Julie Speedie and leading the closing carol, The Bells Of Paradise I Heard Them Ring, with audience participation to boot.

Director Paul Toy’s inspiration for his latest Nativity production was the 1609 prosecution of a troupe of Catholic actors for performing a play that ridiculed a Protestant minister. Based at Egton on the North York Moors, they had established a safe circuit of Catholic gentry households they could tour, but a spy had infiltrated the audience and reported them.

There will surely be no spying, no reporting in 2024, save of the reviewing variety, but Toy’s programme note warrants quoting. “As we are touring a version of the Plays for the first time, I was inspired to set the production as if the Mystery Plays had continued their suppression [banned for ‘Catholic content’ in 1568] but as an underground, illicit activity – depending on secrecy for support of these clandestine performances of a play promoting banned religious doctrine in a time of oppression, always vulnerable to the outside authorities.

“The actors’ interpretation of the plays is influenced by their experience as outsiders.” You can debate whether actors are “outsiders” in today’s world, but reduced arts funding and cuts in arts provision in schools and colleges point to that status returning.

Division and destruction in the actions of Herod are as much at play in A Nativity for York as the message of great joy and hope. Toy’s direction favours the minimalist, the focus falling on the delivery of text and human interaction, rather than a box of theatrical tricks, bells and whistles (except for Brockbank’s).

He has his cast omnipresent, sitting on the benches that line the barn walls when not in scenes, with a raised stage at one end to accommodate stable scenes and Herod’s edicts.

James Tyler’s Herod is both hot-headed and chilling, with Wilma Edwards’s viperous Counsellor urging him to ill action at every opportunity. By way of contrast, Helen Jarvis’s Angel Gabriel has a suitably radiant presence.

The chemistry of Nick Jones’s aged Joseph and Isobel Staton’s young Mary is crucial, and their combination of contrast and yet connection works well. Jones portrays Joseph’s disbelief, puzzlement, yet support with typical attention to detail from this experienced hand, who adds a second woodwind instrument on occasion too. Staton’s Mary is the essence of devoted duty, resolute and loving in all she does.

Michael Maybridge, Sally Maybridge and David Denbigh take on the shepherds’ roles with banter and wonderment, while the Kings – or Wise Men – are played by three Wise Women (Val Burgess, Emily Hansen and Janice Newton). At the play’s close too, when everyone else has left the stage, it is Mary who leads off Joseph.

Amid the starkness of design, one moment has particular resonance: in the soldiers’ slaughter of the innocents, each bairn’s death is signified by a cloak being turned from its black side to its red side. No image is more striking. Models of two cow’s heads in the manger were a rare but welcome artistic flourish.

The choice of music pays dividends for studious research. The Kyrie, for example, was written by Roman Catholic composer William Byrd for a recusant household while the folk carols are suffused with Catholic sensibility too: the outsider in Protestant times.

York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm, then St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Suitable for adults and children aged 11 plus. Box office: 0333 666 3366, at ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on the door, subject to availability. Donations will be welcomed after each performance for the work of UNICEF.

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond when Ebenezer’s good for a street return. Hutch’s List No 44, from Gazette & Herald

Quinn Richards in Be Amazing Arts’ promenade production of A Christmas Carol in Malton

’TIS the season for pantomime, festive exhibitions, ghost stories, a snow bear and an elf as Charles Hutchinson welcomes winter.

Promenade  festive experience of the week: Be Amazing Arts in A Christmas Carol, Malton’s  streets and buildings, starting at Kemps Books, until December 23

MALTON theatre-makers Be Amazing Arts return for a fourth season of immersive A Christmas Carol performances “truly made for all the senses”, where Charles Dickens invites you to a reading of his latest work, transforming into Ebenezer Scrooge (Quinn Richards) for a promenade production, written by Roxanna Klimaszewska, with a cast featuring Katy Rattigan, Kirsty Woolf and David Lomond.

The ticket price includes a food platter from The Cook’s Place as revellers celebrate with the ghost of Christmas Present and a warm winter drink to toast to the goodwill of Christmas. Ticket advice: book promptly as past years’ shows sold out. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/beamazingarts/1275175.

Isobel Staton’s Mary in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders

Christmas message of hope of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, tomorrow and Friday, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm 

PAUL Toy’s community production recalls when the Mystery Plays were banned in the 17th century for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.

“Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter, with their new-born child being forced to flee to another country, but there is news of great hope and joy,” says Toy. Box office: 0333 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on the door.

Wicked return: Paul Hawkyard takes to the dark side again as Abanazar in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal

Look who’s back: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, until January 5 2025

PAUL Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Abanazar to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note) in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy. Look out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon in Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Changing of the old guard to the new: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, Saturday to January 5 2025

EXIT the Dame Berwick Kaler, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and AJ Powell era. Enter Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer as Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris, from  Les Miserable, as The Prince; comedian  Phil Reid as Louis La Plonk; dame Leon Craig, from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, as his larger-than-life mum, Polly La Plonk;  Phil Atkinson, from The Bodyguard, as dastardly Hugo Pompidou and David Alcock, from SAS Rogue Heroes, as Clement. George Ure directs 2019 Great British Pantomimes Award winner Jon Monie’s script. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

The principal players in Rowntree Players’ pantomime Mother Goose at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Let the egg puns get cracking: Rowntree Players in Mother Goose, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Saturday, 2pm and 7.30pm, Sunday, 2pm and 6pm; December 10 to 13, 7.30pm; December 14, 2pm and 7.30pm

MEET Jack (Gemma McDonald), head of hens at Chucklepatch Farm, with its newest addition to the coop, Priscilla the goose (Abbey Follansbee). Joined by mum Gertrude Gander (alias Mother Goose, Michael Cornell) and his sister Jill (Laura Castle), they head out on their panto adventure. 

Frustrated with life on the farm and desperate for showbiz, Gertrude gives up the Wolds for the bright lights of Doncaster. However, ever-nasty landlord Demon Darkheart (Jamie McKeller, alias Dr Dorian Deathly from the Deathly Dark Tours ghost walk) and his assistant Bob (Laura McKeller) will stop at nothing to collect rent, but dishy farmer Kev, the King of Kale (Sarah Howlett) and Fairy Frittata (Holly Smith) will not let the dark side rule in a rollicking romp directed by co-writer Howard Ella. Tickets update: Down to last few tickets or limited availability for most performances on 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Tom Mordell’s Polaris the Snow Bear and Danny Mellor’s Sammy the Seal in Badapple Theatre Company’s Polaris The Snow Bear. Picture: Karl Andre

Children’s play of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in Polaris The Snow Bear, The Mount School, York, Saturday, 3pm and on tour in Yorkshire and beyond until January 5 2025

MEET Polaris, the travelling snow bear and star of Kate Bramley’s new family Christmas show for Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company. On his journey to find renowned naturalist Mr  Hat-In-Burrow, many complicated and comedic adventures ensue as Polaris (Tom Mordell) tries to put everything right, saving the Polar world  in time for Christmas with the help of reluctant sidekick Sammy the Seal (Danny Mellor). For Yorkshire dates and tickets, go to: badappletheatre.co.uk or 01423 331304.

Time to deliver: E(s)mereld(a) The Elf And Father Christmas at Milton Rooms, Malton

Festive family show of the week: Epic Adventure Parties present E(s)mereld(a) The Elf And Father Christmas, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 12 noon, 2pm and 3.30pm; Sunday, 10.30am, 12 noon, 2pm and 3.30pm

IN Malton company Epic Adventure Parties’ interactive show, E(s)mereld(a) The Elf And Father Christmas, the friendly Elf must sort out all the Christmas letters in time. She means well but alas she can become very muddled. Can your family help her?

Each show lasts around 20 minutes, to be followed by family visits to Father Christmas and a gift for every child. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/epicadventureparties.

Guy Masterson in his solo performance of A Christmas Carol, on tour at Kirk Theatre, Pickering

Solo ghost storyteller of the week: Guy Masterson in A Christmas Carol, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, December 11, 7.30pm

OLIVIER Award winner Guy Masterson, veteran of such solo works such as Under Milk Wood, Animal Farm and Shylock, presents his spellbinding take on Charles Dickens’s festive fable, adapted and directed by Nick Hennegan with original music by Robb Williams.

Noted for bringing multiple characters to life, Masterson conjures Scrooge, Marley, the Fezziwigs, the Cratchits, Tiny Tim et al in his dazzling, enchanting performance. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

More Things To Do in York and beyond in the season with reason for great hope and joy. Hutch’s List No. 49 from The Press

Isobel Staton’s Mary in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York on dress rehearsal night at The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton. Picture: John Saunders

IT is time for pantomime, festive exhibitions, ghost stories, Elvis blues and a snow bear, as Charles Hutchinson welcomes winter.

Christmas message of hope of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

PAUL Toy’s community production recalls when the Mystery Plays were banned in the 17th century for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.

“Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter, with their new-born child being forced to flee to another country, but there is news of great hope and joy.” Box office: 0333 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on the door.

Rob Cotterill as The Mad Hatter in Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s Alice In Wonderland

Through the rabbit hole: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Alice In Wonderland, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm

FOLLOW young Alice on her adventures underground as she navigates her way through an imperfect and unfamiliar world. Discover a place where absurdity is the norm, logic is turned on its head and animals can talk in York company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s flamboyant staging for age five upwards.

Join her as she encounters many weird, wonderful and colourful characters, from the Queen of Hearts to the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter. Answers to riddles are non-existent, tales lack morals and injustice looms large in this Lewis Carroll tale, full of fantasy, imagination and fun, where every time is “tea-time” and nothing is ever really as it seems. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Wicked return: Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar in York Theatre Royal’s Aladdin

Look who’s back: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, December 3 to January 5 2025

PAUL Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Abanazar to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note) in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy. Look out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon in Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Changing of the old guard to the new: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, December 7 to January 5 2025

EXIT the Dame Berwick Kaler, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and AJ Powell era. Enter  Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer as Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris, from  Les Miserable, as The Prince; comedian  Phil Reid as Louis La Plonk; dame Leon Craig, from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, as his larger-than-life mum, Polly La Plonk;  Phil Atkinson, from The Bodyguard, as dastardly Hugo Pompidou and David Alcock, from SAS Rogue Heroes, as Clement. George Ure directs 2019 Great British Pantomimes Award winner Jon Monie’s script. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

James Swanton: Christmas ghost stories from the pen of Charles Dickens

Storyteller of the week: James Swanton presents Ghost Stories for Christmas, York Medical Society lecture hall, until December 5, 7pm

YORK actor James Swanton returns to York Medical Society to tell Charles Dickens’s Ghost Stories for Christmas. “Each of them brims with Dickens’s genius for the weird, which ranges from human eccentricities to full-blown phantoms,” he says of his hour-long shows. “Dickens’s anger at social injustice also aligns sharply with our own – and in this age of rising austerity and fascism, we’re feeling the bite more than ever,” he says.

December 5’s performance of The Haunted Man has sold out; hurry, hurry to acquire tickets for A Christmas Carol on December 2, 3 or 4. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

R M Lloyd Parry: MR James Project storyteller

More ghosts in York: Nunkie Theatre Company, Count Magnus, Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE ghost stories of M R James amuse and terrify as powerfully today as they did when first written more than a century ago. Nunkie Theatre Company brings two of these spine-chillers to life in R M Lloyd Parry’s thrilling one-man show.

In Count Magnus a travel-writer’s over-inquisitiveness leads to a diabolical chase from darkest Sweden to rural Essex. Denmark is the setting for Number 13, where a hotel room with the famously unlucky number conceals a ghastly, baffling secret. Tickets update: SOLD OUT.

Tom Mordell’s Polaris the Snow Bear and Danny Mellor’s Sammy the Seal in Badapple Theatre Company’s Polaris The Snow Bear. Picture: Karl Andre

Children’s show of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in Polaris The Snow Bear, The Mount School, York, December 7, 3pm, and on tour in Yorkshire and beyond until January 5 2025

MEET Polaris, the travelling snow bear and star of Kate Bramley’s new family Christmas show for Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company. On his journey to find renowned naturalist Mr  Hat-In-Burrow, many complicated and comedic adventures ensue as Polaris (Tom Mordell) tries to put everything right, saving the Polar world  in time for Christmas with the help of reluctant sidekick Sammy the Seal (Danny Mellor).

Further Yorkshire dates include: tonight, 7pm, Kilham Village Hall; December 1, 7pm, Old Girls’ School, Sherburn in Elmet; December 3, 7pm, Green Hammerton Village Hall; December 11, 7.30pm, Bishop Monkton Village Hall; December 17, 6pm, The Cholmeley Hall, Brandsby; December 28, 2pm, Ampleforth Village Hall, and December 30, 4.30pm, East Cottingwith Village Hall. Full details and tickets: badappletheatre.co.uk or 01423 331304.

Gifts of Christmas on display at the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre

Christmas exhibition of the week: Gifts Of Christmas, Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until December 19, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday; last admission 4pm

BAR Convent is sparkling with a dazzling tree decorations and new exhibition on this year’s festive theme of Gifts of Christmas. On show is a collection of digital art inspired by Viborg, where heritage intersects with cutting-edge technology, while young creatives from Blueberry Academy, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, St George’s RC Primary and York College (ESOL students) are exploring the theme too. Glass cabinets  showcase pop-punk tributes to the Book of Kells and the works of William Blake. Tickets: barconvent.co.uk.

1812 Theatre Company’s poster for Pinocchio at Helmsley Arts Centre

1812 pantomime for 2024: 1812 Theatre Company in Pinocchio, Helmsley Arts Centre, 2.30pm matinees, December 7, 8, 14 and 15; 7.30pm evening shows, December 7, 10 to 14

HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs 1812 Theatre Company in Tom Whalley’s version of Pinocchio. Geppetto (Oliver Clive), an old toy maker, always longed for a son of his own. One starry night, helped by the Blue Fairy (Nicky Hollins) and a cheeky little Jiminy Cricket (Millie Neighbour), his wish comes true and his latest puppet, Pinocchio (Esme Schofield), comes to life.

However, the magical puppet catches the eye of evil showman Stromboli (Ben Coughlan).  Aided by Dame Mamma Mia (Martin Vander Weyer) and her hapless son Lampwick (Joe Gregory) from the pizzeria, will Pinocchio learn in time what it takes to be a “real boy”? Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

One Knight with you: Steve Knight in his Elvis Christmas Special at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York

To avoid a Blue Christmas, book now: Elvis Christmas Special, Tribute by Steve Knight, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 22, 7.30pm

STEVE Knight embodies the spirit and energy of Elvis Presley as he brings a Christmas flavour to his tribute act that has played Las Vegas to London. Presented by Wryley Music, he combines spot-on vocals with a dynamic stage presence  and an uncanny resemblance to the King of Rock’n’Roll. Backed by a full band, he takes a festive journey through Elvis’s greatest hits. Box office:  01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust heads out on neighbourhood tour of A Nativity for York full of joy and hope from tonight

Isobel Staton’s Mary in rehearsal for York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders

YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s new and unique interpretation of the Nativity, dramatising events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, opens at The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, tonight.

Directed once more by Paul Toy, the hour-long touring community production is set in a time of threat when a homeless couple and their newborn baby are driven from home by oppressors.

Likewise, this production is on the move, following up today and tomorrow’s Poppleton performances with visits to St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, on December 5 and 6, then St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, on December 7.

Toy’s vision for his staging is “that of an underground, secret activity; clandestine performances of a play promoting banned religious doctrine in a time of oppression”.

Manuda Fernando (Herod’s son), left, Wilma Edwards (Counsellor), James Tyler (Herod) and Tricia Campbell (Counsellor) in the rehearsal room. Picture: John Saunders

Bringing the Christmas story of events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ to York neighbourhoods, Toy’s production recalls a time in the 17th century when the Mystery Plays were banned for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.

Paul says: “Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter with their new-born child, being forced to flee to another country, leaving behind scenes of unimaginable horror. While it mirrors both history and our current world situation, there is news of great hope and joy.”

Supporters Trust chair Linda Terry adds: “The trust is delighted to be touring the production around three of York’s suburbs. Our aim is to give people the chance to see a performance from one of York’s great cultural traditions on their doorstep. The hour-long performance of words and music promises to both challenge and delight the audience.”

Traditionally, The Nativity performances celebrate the birth of Jesus into the life of humankind. “Beloved when performed by young children, this story is not a simple tale of unmitigated joy,” says Paul. “It is a cold, cruel world that the baby arrives in. People are subjugated by an occupying power, and some are doomed to pay a price of unimaginable suffering. But the birth also gives optimism and the hope of a better future.

Nick Jones’s Joseph rehearsing a scene for A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders

“In our production, we re-create the experiences of those who aimed to keep the story of the Mystery Plays alive at a time when they were banned because their Catholic content was unacceptable to Protestant rulers.

“A band of actors from Egton on the North York Moors kept the flame burning with secret performances in the houses of Catholic landowners – one step ahead of the authorities. Now, join us for an hour when we bring to life that team of fear, of punishment, of homelessness, but also a time of great hope and joy.”

 York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, November 29, 7.30pm, and November 30, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Suitable for adults and children aged 11 plus. Box office: 0333 666 3366 or https://ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets and on the door (cash or card), subject to availability.

York Mystery Plays: back story

WRITTEN in medieval times, 48 plays, once performed in the streets by the city’s Guilds, tell the Biblical story from Creation to Judgement Day, including the life of Jesus Christ.

 York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is a registered charity, a group of volunteers aiming to keep the story of the York Mystery Plays alive.

Who is in the cast?

The Shepherds, David Denbigh, left, Michael Maybridge and Sally Maybridge in rehearsal for A Nativity for York

Balladeer/Minstrel: Jonathan Brockbank
Symeon/Soldier I: David Lancaster
Anna/Counsellor II: Clare Halliday
The Angel Gabriel: Helen Jarvis
Mary: Isobel Staton
Elizabeth/Counsellor I: Wilma Edwards
Joseph: Nick Jones
Neighbour II/Maidservant/Angel: Trisha Campbell
King I/Neighbour I: Val Burgess
King II/Mother I: Emily Hansen
King III: Madusha Fernando/Janice Newton
Shepherd I: Michael Maybridge
Shepherd II/Mother II: Sally Maybridge
Shepherd III/Soldier II: David Denbigh
Herod: James Tyler
Filius/Herod’s Son: Manuda Fernando
Messenger: Oliver Howard
Star Angel: Julie Speedie
Angel Choir: Emily Hansen, Trisha Campbell, Val Burgess, Wilma Edwards and Julie Speedie

Cast members act in ensemble parts.

More Things To Do in York and beyond as Pride comes out to play. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 23 for 2024, from The Press, York

Angels Of The North: Headlline drag act at York Pride today

PRIDE pageantry and wartime memoirs, open studios and open-air Status Quo lead off Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations.

Celebration of the week: York Pride, Knavesmire, York, today

NORTH Yorkshire’s biggest LGBT+ celebration opens with the Parade March for equality and human rights from Duncombe Place, outside York Minster, at 12 noon, processing through the city-centre streets, up Bishopthorpe Road to the festival’s Knavesmire site.

Pride events will be spread between the main stage, Queer Arts’ cabaret tent, Polymath’s dance tent and a funfair, complemented by a licensed bar and marketplace. Among the main stage acts will be headliners Angels Of The North, alias winner Ginger Johnson, Tomara Thomas and Michael Marouli, from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5, plus Max George, Big Brovaz & Booty Luv, Jaymi Hensley, Janice D and Eric Spike.  Full details: yorkpride.org.uk.

Into the woods: George Stagnell as Dennis “Hank” Haydock in the short film In The Footsteps of Hank Haydock, premiered at Helmsley Arts Centre tonight

D-Day landmark of the week: Everwitch Theatre, Bomb Happy D-Day 80, In The Footsteps Of Hank Haydock (film premiere) and Sleep/Re-live/Wake Repeat (live performance), Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm

TO commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Bomb Happy playwright Helena Fox has created two poignant, lyrical new works telling the stories of two Yorkshire Normandy veterans from conversations and interviews she held with them in 2016.

Featuring York actor George Stagnell, the short film In the Footsteps of Hank Haydock: A Walk In The Park was shot on location in the Duncombe Park woodland with its lyrical account of Coldstream Guardsman Dennis “Hank” Haydock’s experiences in his own words. In Sleep/Re-Live/Wake/Repeat, playwright Helena Fox and vocalist Natasha Jones bring to life the first-hand experiences of D-Day veteran Ken “Smudger” Smith and the lifelong impact of PTSD and sleep trauma through spoken word and a cappella vocals. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

York artist Adele Karmazyn: Taking part in North Yorkshire Open Studios

Art event of the week: North Yorkshire Open Studios 2024, today and tomorrow, June 8 and 9, 10am to 5pm

STRETCHING from the coast to the moors, dales and beyond, 169 artists and makers from North Yorkshire’s artistic community invite you to look inside their studios over the next two weekends.

Taking part in and around York will be Robin Grover-Jacques, Adele Karmazyn, Anna Cook, Boxxhead, Simon Palmour, Duncan McEvoy, Evie Leach, Jane Atkin, Jane Dignum, Jen Dring, Parkington Hatter, Jo Walton, Kitty Pennybacker, Lu Mason, Robert Burton, Lincoln Lightfoot, Sharon McDonagh, Claire Castle, Rosie Bramley, Emma Welsh, Lesley Peatfield, Gonzalo Blanco and Freya Horsley. For full details, go to: nyos.org.uk. A full brochure is available.

Isobel Staton: Directing Cain and Abel for A Creation For York, today’s York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust promenade production

York community play of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Creation For York, around Micklegate, York, today, from 2pm and 3.30pm

YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust stages a trilogy of 20-minute plays from the Creation cycle, directed by Katie Smith, Dan Norman and Isobel Staton under Dr Tom Straszewski’s mentorship.

The promenade procession starts with Smith’s The Creation Of Man at St Columba’s, Priory Street, at 2pm and 3.30pm, and progresses to Holy Trinity, Micklegate, for Norman’s The Fall Of Man at 3pm and 4.30pm, then onwards to St Martin’s Stained Glass Centre, Micklegate, for Staton’s Cain And Abel at 4pm and 5.30pm. Tickets: ympst.co.uk/creation.

The poster artwork for Navigators Art & Performance’s night of live music, spoken word and comedy, The Basement Sessions #4, at City Screen Picturehouse

Navigators Art & Performance at York Festival of Ideas (festival running from today until June 14)

YORK arts collective Navigators Art & Performance presents the Micklegate Art Trail, a collaboration between shops, restaurants, artists, makers and community groups, from today until June 23, 10am to 4pm, including a special exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery. Tomorrow is the “official” launch day with activities in participating venues from 11 am.

Tomorrow comes As I Walked Out One Evening, An Exploration of W H Auden’s Poetry in Words, Music and Performance with York musicians, poets and performers at Museum Street Tavern, York, from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. On June 8, The Basement Sessions #4 offers a night of music, spoken word and comedy at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse at 7pm with Percy, Amy Albright, Cai Moriarty, Danae, Suzy Bradley, Kane Bruce, Rose Drew and John Pease. Tickets and full festival details: yorkfestivalofideas.com.

Rain or shine: Francis Rossi, left, leads veteran band Status Quo at Scarborough Open Air Theatre tomorrow

Coastal gig of the week: Status Quo, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Sunday, gates 6pm

DENIM rock legends Status Quo open the 2024 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, where they played previously in 2013, 2014 and 2016. Led as ever by founder Francis Rossi, who turned 75 on Wednesday, they must pick their set from 64 British hit singles, more than any other band. The support act will be The Alarm. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/statusquo.

Georgia Lennon, as Paula Pofriki and Luke Baker as Zack Mayo in An Officer And A Gentleman, on tour at Grand Opera House, York

Musical of the week: An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 4 to 8, 8pm, Tuesday, 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday, plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees

NORTH Yorkshireman Nikolai Foster directs Leeds-born actor Luke Baker as fearless young officer candidate Zack Mayor in the Curve, Leicester touring production of An Officer And A Gentleman.

Once an award-winning 1982 Taylor Hackford film, now Douglas Day Stewart’s story of love, courage and redemption comes re-booted with George Dyer’s musical theatre arrangements and orchestrations of pop bangers by Bon Jovi, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Blondie and the signature song (Love Lift Us) Up Where We Belong. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Guy Rhys, centre, as Captain Ahab in Simple8’s Moby Dick, setting sail at York Theatre Royal next week

Touring play of the week: Simple8 in Moby Dick, York Theatre Royal, June 6 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

SEBASTIAN Armesto’s stage adaptation captures the spirit of Herman Melville’s novel – romantic, ambiguous and rich with allegory – for Simple8, specialists in creating worlds out of nothing in bold new plays that tackle big ideas with large casts.

Armed with sea shanties played live on stage, planks of wood, tattered sheets and a battered assortment of musical instruments, the ensemble of actors and actor-musicians, led by Guy Rhys’s whale-seeking Captain Ahab, brings Moby Dick ingeniously to life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

In Focus: Northern Silents presents G W Pabst’s film Diary Of A Lost Girl, starring Louise Brooks, at NCEM, York, June 11

“From the pit of despair to the moment of personal awakening”: Louise Brooks’s

TRAILBLAZING New York raga pianist Utsav Lal will provide the live score for Diary Of A Lost Girl, a rarely shown gem of German silent cinema starring Louise Brooks, at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on June 11 at 7.30pm.

Premiered in Vienna, Austria, on September 12 1929, and now screened by Northern Silents, G W Pabst’s film traces the journey of a young woman from the pit of despair to the moment of personal awakening.

Directed with virtuoso flair by Pabst, Diary Of A Lost Girl (PG, 104 minutes) represents the final pairing of the Czechia-born Austrian filmmaker with American silent screen icon Louise Brooks, mere months after their first collaboration in the now-legendary Pandora’s Box, for which Brooks had arrived in Berlin on October 14 1928 to play alluring temptress Lulu.

In Diary Of A Lost Girl, she is pharmacist Robert Henning’s innocent daughter Thymian, who is traumatised by the suicide of housekeeper Elisabeth after her father expels her from the house.

Even more so when Henning’s assistant rapes Thymian. Pregnant, she refuses to marry her assailant, prompting her outraged father to sendher to a reformatory for “wayward women”, where a cruel regime prevails. Henning, meanwhile, makes advances towards new housekeeper, Meta, who insists Thymian should not be allowed to return home.

Thymian escapes with her friend Erika but discovers that her child has passed away. She joins Erika in working at a brothel, then marries a count, but can she ever escape her past?

Pianist Utsav Lal, noted for his innovative performances at Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre and around the world, will improvise a unique live score at the 7.30pm screening.

Huddersfield-based Northern Silents will return to the NCEM with another fusion of new music and vintage film on October 15. Watch this space for more details.

Tickets for Diary Of A Lost Girl are on sale on 01904 658338 and at ncem.co.uk.

In Focus too: Anita Klein, 30 Years In York, exhibition launch at Pyramid Gallery, York, today at 12 noon

Poster artwork for Anita Klein’s 30 Years In York exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York

ARTIST Anita Klein will attend today’s opening of her Thirty Years In York exhibition of paintings, linocuts and etchings at Pyramid Gallery, York.

“Anita was one of the first artist printmakers to be shown here and has shown her work in York constantly since June 1994,” says Terry Brett, owner and curator of the gallery in Stonegate.

That first exhibition marked a dramatic change in both the look of the gallery and its fortunes under the new ownership of Terry, who took the keys to Pyramid Gallery on May 31 1994 with his then partner and wife Elaine.

“As soon as Elaine and I had taken over the gallery, I contacted the Greenwich Printmaking co-operative who ran a shop in Greenwich market,” Terry recalls. “They agreed to do a show and I collected work by 15 artists in my car.

“Several of those artists have supplied Pyramid Gallery regularly for 30 years. The first print that sold was a small drypoint print by Anita Klein, which I had put in the window one evening, before the show had opened.”

Terry continues: “Anita was not a big name in the art world in 1994, but she certainly had a following and has since had a very successful career as an artist with features on BBC Radio and national newspapers and magazines.

Pyramid Gallery curator Terry Brett with Anita Klein works and a copy of her 2022 book Out Of The Ordinary, charting her career since 1982

“‘From working with Anita and other former Greenwich artists, such as Mychael Barratt, Trevor Price and Louise Davies, I have come to realise that the relationship between artist and gallery is something that is really worth nurturing. I place great importance on visiting the South East London-based artists, personally collecting the work for each show.”

To mark the start of Terry Brett’s 30th year as a gallerist, Anita Klein is travelling up from London to attend today’s opening from 12 noon to 2pm, when she will sign copies of her 2022 book, Out Of The Ordinary, too.

Australian-born Anita began her career by studying painting on degree and post-graduate courses at the Slade School of Art, where she was influenced by Paula Rego, who encouraged her to “draw what she wanted to draw”.

In response, she started to capture scenes depicting ordinary moments of her own life. Given expert guidance at the school, she learnt to reproduce those sketches using the various techniques of printmaking.

She met her future husband and artist Nigel Swift at the Slade. From the outset, Anita’s artistic diary of her life has often featured amusing or romantic scenes of the two of them or sometimes only  ‘Nige’ in the throes of some activity that Anita has observed and captured in a sketch.

In 1984 she was awarded the Joseph Webb Memorial prize by the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers to spend the summer drawing from the Italian masters. Anita and Nigel stayed in a flat in Arezzo, Tuscany, and filled sketch books with sketches of Italian frescoes.

Casserole, linocut, by Anita Klein

Soon after, they married and had two children, Maia and Leia, Anita recording it all in many small prints using techniques that included woodcuts, etching, lithograph, aquatint and drypoint. When their daughters were small, she made small sketches while they were asleep and developed them into drypoint prints at a printmaking evening class.

For her first solo show in 1986, she had a year to prepare enough images to fill a gallery in London, which led her to simplify the way she worked. Fortunately for all her followers and collectors, the first show was successful and led to another solo show elsewhere.

Many years later, after she supplied her work to as many as 60 galleries, the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers elected Anita to the prestigious position as president. During those 38 years, her work and life has been profiled in national newspapers and magazines and on BBC Radio 4’s Home Truths, presented by John Peel.

In 2007, Anita and Nigel bought a flat in a medieval hilltop town in Tuscany. After painting large oils from her studio in London for many years, she started to paint in acrylics on canvas when staying in Italy.

By using acrylics, she was able to roll up the paintings and carry them back to London, which in turn enabled Pyramid Gallery to show a few of her paintings, along with a larger exhibition of the prints.

For Terry, the choice of Anita Klein to begin a year of anniversary celebratory shows, is apt. “My own family life corresponds quite closely with Anita’s in that I got married about the same time and had two daughters, Elinor and Suzy, just two years prior to the births of Maia and Leia,” he says.

Artist Anita Klein: 30 years of exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery, York

“I could relate to almost every image that Anita created about her family life. When I was helping my two daughters learn to drive, Anita produced a print that could easily have been about us. We even had a similar car. ‘Picking Maia and Leia up from School’ or ‘Driving to Ballet’ could also easily have been about my own family.”

When asked how she came to start documenting her own life, Anita says: “There was no plan to start with. Drawing my everyday life was at first a continuation of the kind of drawings I did as a child. And as I spent the first 20 or so years of my career bringing up my two children with no extra childcare help, it was really the only subject matter I knew.

“Looking back, I can see that I have always wanted to hold onto and celebrate the ordinary. The small repetitive joys that can so easily go unnoticed and unappreciated.”

 Knowing how fortunate he is still to be able to represent an eminent London artist with such a large following, Terry asked Anita: “What does Pyramid Gallery and York mean to you?”.

“Pyramid Gallery has been very good to me over the years, showing and selling my work from the very early days of my career while other galleries have come and gone,” she says. “At one point I had prints in over 60 galleries worldwide.

“These days I have cut this down substantially – the Internet and social media enables me to reach a wide audience, and Pyramid is one of only a small handful of galleries that has a large selection of my work.” 

Eating Pizza, linocut, by Anita Klein

Mounting this exhibition has enabled Terry to pause a while and “take a long look at the gallery more as a pleasurable activity than as a business”.

“Sometimes I can become a bit too focused on the sales figures and the marketing, but in recent weeks I’ve been looking forward to celebrating the landmark of having been nurturing the gallery for three decades, as if it were a part of me that I have to ease through challenges and crises,” he says.

“Pyramid Gallery has become a meeting point for those that need to create and those that need the joy of feeling moved or inspired. It really is more about people than it is about art.

“It gives me a glowing feeling of warmth that I am able to connect a great artist like Anita, who is a storyteller and recorder of social history and of human emotions, with those who visit the gallery for exactly the same experience that inspired the creation of the images.”

For Terry’s 30th anniversary show, Anita will be showing two or three acrylic paintings alongside coloured linocut prints and many black-and-white images of various sizes with a price range from £96 for a small etching up to £7,000 for a large painting.

Here Terry Brett puts questions to Anita Klein

Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett with works by Anita Klein

You first supplied Pyramid Gallery as part of a show by Greenwich Printmakers in 1994. How important was that co-operative to you and was it an easy decision to be part of that show?

“Greenwich Printmakers was a vital first step to exhibiting and selling my work, both through their gallery in Greenwich Market and through their ‘outside exhibitions’. Those exhibitions introduced my work to a number of regional galleries, including Pyramid.

“In the days before social media it was crucial to get your work seen as much as possible in galleries, so that first show was a great opportunity for me. 

In those days you were bringing up two small daughters and doing your art on the floor when they were napping. Many of your drypoints were quite small – was this by choice or a necessity?

“I did some painting when my children were small, but without a studio in the early days I was limited to small-scale work. I drew my drypoints while the children slept and printed them once a week at a printmaking evening class.” 

Do you enjoy being ‘dragged out’ of London to open a show in York?

“It’s wonderful to have exposure of my work in York, and it’s always a pleasure to visit such a fascinating and vibrant city.” 

When did you realise that other people would very quickly find parallels in their own lives and connect so easily with your work?

“It came as a surprise at first that other people saw themselves in my work. I thought my life was unique! Now I know that we are all much more alike than we think, especially in the most private parts of our lives.” 

Cold water wild swimming has become an important activity to you. Does the need for a new image in your art ever drive you to do find new places to swim?

“Not really. I can always make up the backgrounds! But I’m always on the lookout for beautiful places to swim, so just as with all other parts of my life this feeds into my work.”

June Flowers, linocut, by Anita Klein

York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s young directors to stage A Creation For York trilogy around Micklegate on June 1

Katie Smith: Directing The Creation Of Man at St Columba’s, Priory Street

YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust will stage A Creation For York on June 1 in a promenade production around Micklegate in runs at 2pm and 3.30pm.

Three aspiring directors mentored by Dr Tom Straszewski, a past director of the York Wagon Play cycle, will be presenting their visions of a trilogy of 20-minute plays from the Creation cycle with a community cast and production team.

The promenade procession will start with The Creation Of Man at St Columba’s, Priory Street, at 2pm and 3.30pm, and progress to Holy Trinity, Micklegate, for The Fall Of Man at 3pm and 4.30pm, then onwards to St Martin’s Stained Glass Centre, Micklegate, for Cain And Abel at 4pm and 5.30pm. On each run, the weary traveller can enjoy refreshments before the third play begins at St Martin’s.

Katie Smith, director of The Creation Of Man, studied acting at Plymouth Conservatoire and is undertaking a Masters in English Literary Studies in York.

“The essence of any piece of theatre is a vision made a reality through the work of a group of artists,” says Katie. “My own vision for The Creation was inspired by workshops of the Italian Renaissance and the artists and polymaths of that time, and so God became a master artist, an inventor, architect, scientist.

“Lucifer was a talented, arrogant apprentice, the other angels hard-working assistants, and the performance space became a bustling art studio, bringing God’s vision to life.

“In turning these ideas into a reality, I have had the privilege of working with an incredibly talented group of artists, from the actors you see on stage, to our composer, set designers, costume makers, and countless others.

“For a performance so centred on the concept of ‘creation’, their work is not just vital in bringing the piece to life, but a reflection of the imagination, creativity, and artistry at the heart of the play.”

In Katie’s cast will be: Daniel Wilmot as Deus; Harry Summers, Lucifer; Colin Lea, Diabolus; Tess Wingard, Seraphyn/Clarinet; Julie Speedie, Cherabyn; Samuel Jackson, Adam, and Joy Warner, Eve. 

Dan Norman: Director of The Fall Of Man at Holy Trinity, Micklegate

Dan Norman, directing The Fall Of Man, is a writer who has directed short films and is venturing into directing theatre for the first time.

“Reading through the three Mystery Plays that make up The Fall Of Man, it is striking how separate Adam and Eve are,” says Dan. “Adam speaks with the Angel, and Eve speaks with Satan, but there’s no interaction between them until Eve persuades Adam to eat the apple.  Their most prolonged conversation is the climactic argument.

“Adam and Eve’s relationship is uniquely strange. Eve was custom-made for Adam – but from the same material has become someone very different to him. Shared humanity must be an odd concept when you are the first humans, and being a partner holds extra significance when you are the only two people.

“At the start of the play, the Angel instructs Adam and Eve that ‘from this hour ye never twin’. The commandment not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge sticks with them, but this one they seem to forget. Maybe it was just as important.”

Dan’s cast comprises David Lancaster as the Angel; Val Burgess, Satan; Nicola Peard, Eve; Oliver Howard, Adam, and David Denbigh, God/Violin.

Isobel Staton, in charge of Cain And Abel, has completed her PhD in Medieval History and has worked with the Lords of Misrule at the University of York.

“In The Sacrifice Of Cain And Abel, humanity reaps the harvest that was sown during The Fall Of Man,” she says. “The children of Adam and Eve – Cain and Abel – must toil to grow and raise their food by ‘the sweat of [their] brow’. Following his father, Cain takes uparable farming, struggling to grow a crop which is not overtaken by thorns and briars while his harvest gets smaller year on year.

“Abel, on the other hand, takes up sheep-farming and is blessed with bounty and relaxation (although outside a play I would never suggest that sheep-farming was easy work!).

“From Cain and Abel’s differing experiences of farming grows resentment, jealousy, deeply different relationships to God, and a conflicting attitude to tithing and sacrifice. What began as a rift between Adam and Eve ends in murder with their sons.

Isobel Staton: Directing Cain And Abel at St Martin’s Stained Glass Centre, Micklegate

“The script of York’s Cain And Abel has been partially lost. In this performance, that lost portion has been filled with an extract from The Murder Of Abel from the Towneley cycle (a related mystery play tradition thought to have been performed in Wakefield), which shares many of the same preoccupations and tensions.”

Isabel’s cast will feature James Tyler as Cain, Allyson Butler as Abel and Charlotte Turner as the Angel, along with musician Jonathan Brockbank and singer Evie Hartley-Rapson.

Music for the production has been composed by musical director Desmond Clarke, who is joined in the production team by producers Emily Hansen and Janice Newton, wardrobe trio Trisha Campbell, Beverley Foster and Claire Little and set and prop designers Richard Hampton, Linda Lockett and Jon Mills.

Looking forward to next weekend, trust chair Linda Terry says: “We are thrilled to offer the opportunity to new directors to take part in York’s heritage tradition and to offer them the benefit of Dr Tom Straszewski’s support. 

“We decided to make this a promenade production with the audience moving between three venues: St Columba’s, Priory Street, Holy Trinity, Micklegate, and St Martin’s Stained Glass Centre, Micklegate. They will be guided on the short walking distance between the venues by cast members.  

“Micklegate was the historical start for performance of the Mystery Plays in the medieval period, so it seems appropriate to bring them back to their home ground. We’ve had terrific support from the venues themselves in staging the event.”

Tickets are on sale at ympst.co.uk/creation. One ticket gives access to all three plays.

In addition, the trio of plays will be performed for the residents of Hartrigg Oaks, in New Earswick, on June 15 as part of the care home’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

Coming next

YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s next production will be A Nativity For York, touring to The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, and St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, between November 29 and December 7; seven performances in all.

Dr Tom Straszewski: Mentoring three young directors for A Creation For York

York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust to perform The Barbours Play at Holy Trinity Church on Saturday and Sunday afternoon

Sally Maybridge’s John the Baptist and Michael Maybridge’s Jesus Christ with Helen Jarvis and Lydia McCudden’s angels in rehearsal for The Barbours Play at Holy Trinity Church

PAUL Toy directs the York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust community cast in The Barbours Play: The Baptism of Christ on Saturday at 2 pm and 4 pm and Sunday at 4.30pm.

This play from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays will be staged in a 20-minute performance of words and music in the garden of Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, as part of the St John’s Eve Festival.

Supporters Trust chair Linda Terry says: “We were delighted to respond to Holy Trinity’s invitation to stage a Mystery Play as part of the festival. In the church calendar, June 23 is the festival of St John the Baptist, hence our choice of play.  

“It is the only play in the cycle significantly featuring the Baptist. We hope to attract people to the performance who have not had chance to see a Mystery Play before, as well as those in the city already familiar with the tradition.”

In Toy’s cast will be Michael Maybridge as Jesus Christ and Sally Maybridge as John the Baptist, accompanied by Helen Jarvis and Lydia McCudden as angels.

Tickets cost £5, under-15s £2, with some availability at the gate on the day. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/york-mystery-plays-supporters-trust/

REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust, A Nativity for York, Spurriergate Centre, York

Anastasia Crook’s Mary with infant Jesus wrapped in swaddling bands in A Nativity for York. All pictures: John Saunders

COVID cancelled last winter’s edition of A Nativity for York and did its worst to scupper this year’s return after a two-year absence.

Nine out of 16 cast members had tested positive during rehearsals, one actor’s all-important negative reading on the day of the dress rehearsal ensuring clearance for take-off.

Divine intervention, you might say, and the arrival of this new-born production under the guiding light of Alan Heaven’s direction is indeed something of a miraculous conception. The very subject of A Nativity, of course.

The shepherds: James Tyler, left, Effie Warboys and Mark Comer

Note the title: A Nativity for York. Heaven’s production is the essence of community theatre, rooted in York’s unrivalled mediaeval Cycle of Mystery Plays. From the streets, those plays move indoors, onto the stone slabs of the ever-convivial Spurriergate Centre, where mulled wine and mince pies spice up the arrival scene.

Writer, director and designer Heaven has constructed a backdrop as if from a builders’ guild – ladders, a plank, dust sheets, work bench – affording a mezzanine level for the Angel Gabriel, and providing the edifice for drapes of changing colours: blue to signify Anastasia Crook’s Mary; red for Nick Jones’s ruthless Herod; black for the hellish scene of Herod’s slaughter of the babes.

Even a clothes line pops up to emphasise the Mystery Plays’ meeting point between the utilitarian and the work of the Lord.

Nick Jones’s Herod and Wilma Edwards’s Chamberlain at a helluva party

Storytelling theatre lies at the heart of Heaven’s Nativity, a familiar story but here told with fresh imagination, shards of humour, especially for Michael Maybridge’s disbelieving, weary Joseph and the shepherds, peppered with bursts of traditional song and communal dance, to the accompaniment of arrangements by The Bertie Set, played by Diane Heaven (keyboards) and Petra Wade (recorders).

Alice Melton’s all-in-flowing-white Angel Gabriel has a shimmering radiance and even a hint of Shakespeare’s Puck when she rouses Joseph from his slumbers with a nudge in the back.

Crook’s Mary – the role every (competitive) girl wanted to play in the school Nativity Play – is played with virtue, calm purpose and awe-struck duty by Crook, with Sally Maybridge’s Anna often by her side.

The Massacre of the Innocents under Herod’s orders

Mark Comer’s Symeon is central to the lovely opening scene under an umbrella as the company spins around him in a whirl of ribbons. Harold Mozley, Daniiel Zavalniuk and Rachel Curnow’s earnest Kings contrast with the country-bumpkin airs of James Tyler and Effie Warboys, sheep under her arm, as they lead the audience in a participatory folk song that needed more clarity on Wednesday to make out what exactly chorus line was when urged to join in.

Jones’s Herod, dapper in his waistcoat and coat but devil-red in his butchery, has a sparring relationship with his truculent son (Tristan Heaven), in the tradition of theatrical fraternal frictions. Their scenes heighten the drama with a Shakespearean edge.

In keeping with Heaven’s renderings of the Last Judgement in wagon plays on the streets of York, the visual peak is the Massacre of the Innocents under Herod’s orders, a scene of terror and horror as the mothers’ screams pierce the night chill. Where earlier the ribbons signified joyful news, now they represent the guts of slaughtered children.

Anastasia Crook’s Mary, seated, in a joyous scene in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York

As Alan Heaven puts it: “Our production is built on juxtapositions of light and dark, joy and despair, community and isolation as we witness the depths of human suffering alongside the hope brough by the birth of Jesus.”

Words that echo through the streets of today, Christmas lights shining out against a backdrop of financial struggles, strikes, freezing temperatures and an ever greater need for hope and re-birth.

Tickets are on sale at £10, students and under 18s £6, on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.

Heaven guides new York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust interpretation of A Nativity for York at Spurriergate Centre

Heaven’s above: Alan Heaven directing a rehearsal of A Nativity for York. All pictures: John Saunders

A NATIVITY for York returns to the Spurriergate Centre, Spurriergate, York, on Thursday after a two-year enforced break, under the direction of the divinely named Alan Heaven.

Mounted by York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust (YMPST), the production will run for eight performances, preceded by an open dress rehearsal at 7.30pm on Wednesday.

After directing the Last Judgement plays in the York Mystery Plays Wagon cycles on the city streets in 2018 and 2022, Heaven has created a new interpretation of the Nativity, combining “music, dance, sorrows and joys and some audience participation”.

It may be unlucky to open an umbrella indoors, as the saying insists, but York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust cast members, led by Mark Comer, take their chances in the rehearsal room. All pictures: John Saunders

Billed as a fresh, vibrant and magical retelling of the Nativity, based on the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, A Nativity for York features actors, dancers and musicians drawn from a wide range of community volunteers, in keeping with the YMPST productions of A Nativity for York in 2019 and A Resurrection for York in 2021.

Work began on the production in October, and although Covid among nine of the 16-strong cast has disrupted rehearsals in recent weeks, preparations are almost complete for the hour-long performances on Thursday and Friday at 7.30pm, then Saturday and Sunday at 3pm, 5pm and 7.30pm.

“The story is quite familiar but, in order to keep the play dynamic, we have focused on the cast putting every ounce of their energy into their parts, so that they engage with the audience,” says Alan.

“Keeping the play dynamic”: Anastasia Crook’s Mary rehearses a scene that testifies to the movement skills of director Alan Heaven

“Hopefully, as they work together – and most have multiple roles – through all 12 scenes, the result will be a positive and community-minded experience.” 

Heaven, an experienced director specialising in Early Modern theatre practice, community theatre, street theatre, movement and puppetry, is also a playwright, actor, musician, artist, illustrator and film maker.

He first worked with the York Mystery Plays in 2008 and has done so regularly since then, as well as adapting and staging the entire York Mystery Plays corpus for families. 

A restful moment for Michael Maybridge’s Joseph during rehearsals

Delighted to be working with the YMPST on this week’s new Nativity, he says: “It’s a real honour to be entrusted with these texts, which are such a vital part of York`s heritage. I hope to deliver a production that develops the rich and vibrant contrasts of the originals.

“There’ll be comedy and celebrations along with music, dance and song, next to the savagery of Herod and the struggle to escape his reach. This is a wonderful and exciting journey that will involve the audience and thrill and delight everyone involved.”

Tickets are on sale at £10, students and under 18s £6, on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.

More Things To Do in York and beyond, from an Old Granny Goose to Grayson. Hutch’s List No. 108, courtesy of The Press

Goose by the Ouse: Dame Berwick Kaler, centre, with Martin Barrass, left, AJ Powell, Suzy Cooper and David Leonard, gathering again at the Grand Opera House, York, for The Adventures Of Old Mother Goose. Picture: David Harrison

KALER on the loose, Christmas music, art and crafts and a stellar trio on the horizon have Charles Hutchinson hopping between diaries

Berwick’s back: The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose, Grand Opera House, York, December 10 to January 8

THE script is complete, as of 6am on Thursday morning, for writer, director and perennial York dame Berwick Kaler’s second year at his adopted panto home, presented in tandem with the Grand Opera House’s new partners in pantomime, UK Productions.

At 76, expect a greater emphasis on the verbal jousting from Dame Berwick, but still with slapstick aplenty in the familiar company of sidekick Martin Barrass, villain David Leonard, principal gal Suzy Cooper, luverly Brummie AJ Powell and ever-game dancer Jake Lindsay in his tenth Kaler panto, me babbies, me bairns. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Angel With Gift, linocut print by Anita Klein, part of The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery, York

Exhibition launch of the week: The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today until January 12, open daily

YORK ceramicist Ben Arnup opens The Christmas Collection, the last exhibition of Pyramid Gallery’s 40th anniversary celebrations, at midday today.  He will be exhibiting 12 new trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures too.

Gallery curator Terry Brett has invited London printmaker Anita Kelin to fill the walls with 15 large linocut original prints and two paintings in her 28th year of showing her depictions of family life at Pyramid. Exhibiting too will be printmaker Mychael Barratt, sculptors Christine Pike and Jennie McCall, ceramicist Katie Braida and glassmakers Rachel Elliott, Alison Vincent, Keith Cummings and David Reekie, plus 50 jewellery makers.

Sara Davies: Crafty ideas for Christmas at York Barbican

Return to York of the week: Craft Your Christmas with Sara Davies, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

DRAGONS’ Den entrepreneur Sara Davies, who founded her Crafter’s Companion company in 2005 while studying at the University of York, offers practical demonstrations, creative ideas and a healthy slice of down-to-earth know-how.

Taking you from gifts to garlands, cards to crackers, via a peek into the Den and a sprinkling of Strictly Come Dancing sparkle, Sara will help you to create your own unique handmade Christmas. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Ebor Singers: Christmas music from America and Britain at St Lawrence Parish Church

Christmas concert of the week: The Ebor Singers, A Christmas Celebration By Candlelight, St Lawrence Parish Church, Lawrence Street, York, tonight, 7.30pm

PAUL Gameson directs The Ebor Singers in an evening of beautiful choral arrangements for Christmastide that also marks the launch of the York choir’s CD recording of Christmas music by contemporary American composers, Wishes And Candles.

Pieces from the disc, featuring works by Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre,  Dan Forrest, Abbie Bettinis and Matthew Culloton, will be complemented by festive compositions by John Rutter and Bob Chilcott. Expect audience participation in carol singing too. Tickets: eventbrite.co.uk and on the door.

Russell Watson and Aled Jones

Festive musical duo of the week: Aled Jones and Russell Watson, Christmas With Aled & Russell York Barbican, Tuesday, 8pm

ALED Jones and Russell Watson are reuniting for Christmas 2022, combining a new album and tour. Performing together again after a three-year hiatus, the classical singers will be promoting their November 4 release of Christmas With Aled And Russell. 

The album features new recordings of traditional carols such as O Holy Night, O Little Town Of Bethlehem and In The Bleak Midwinter, alongside festive favourites White Christmas, It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Little Drummer Boy and Mistletoe And Wine, complemented by a duet rendition of Walking In The Air. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk

York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust cast members in rehearsal for A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders

Nativity play of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity for York, Spurriergate Centre, Spurriergate, York, Thursday, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, Sunday, 3pm, 5pm and 7.30pm

A NATIVITY for York returns to the Spurriergate Centre following a two-year enforced break, staged by York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust (YMPST). After directing the Last Judgement plays  on the city streets in 2018 and 2022, Alan Heaven has created a fresh, vibrant and magical retelling of the Nativity, combining “music, dance, sorrows and joys and some audience participation”.

Heaven’s company of actors, dancers and musicians is drawn from a wide range of community volunteers, in keeping with the YMPST productions of A Nativity for York in 2019 and A Resurrection for York in 2021. Tickets: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.

Solomon’s Knot: Christmas Cantatas at Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, in York Early Music Christmas Festival 2022’s concluding concert

Festival of the week: York Early Music Christmas Festival, mainly at NCEM, Walmgate, December 8 to 16; online box set, December 19 to January 31

MUSIC, minstrels, merriment, mulled wine and mince pies combine in York Early Music Christmas Festival 2022, to be complemented by an online box set of festival highlights post-festival.

Taking part will be La Palatine (Fiesta Galante); Ensemble Augelletti (Pick A Card!); Solomon’s Knot (Johann Kuhnau’s Christmas Cantatas); Spiritato and The Marion Consort (Inspiring Bach); Ensemble Moliere (Good Soup);  Bojan Čičić (Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas); The Orlando Consort (Adieu) and Yorkshire Bach Choir & Yorkshire Baroque Soloists (Handel’s Brockes Passion). Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Guitarist Tom Bennett and baritone Sam Hird, outside their training ground, the Royal College of Music. On Friday, they perform a Christmas recital in York

Homecoming of the week: Sam Hird and Tom Bennett, A Winter Night’s Recital, All Saints’ Church, North Street, York, Friday, 7pm to 9pm

YORK baritone Sam Hird and his fellow Royal College of Music graduate, guitarist Tom Bennett, perfrom classical songs from around the world, by Schubert, Faure and Britten, complemented by festive favourites such as Adeste Fideles, O Holy Night and A Cradle In Bethlehem to stir the Christmas spirit.

The 15th century All Saints’ Church will be the “perfect backdrop” to this candlelit concert, Hird’s professional solo debut. A glass of mulled wine and a mince pie is included in the ticket price of £10 plus booking fee, available from samhirdmusic.co.uk and on the door.

Big jumpers, big songs: Alistair Griffin presents The Big Christmas Concert, St Michael le Belfrey Church, York, December 9, 10 and 17, 8pm; doors, 7.30pm

Alistair Griffin: Christmas hits

BILLED as “the biggest Christmas concert in York”, singer-songwriter Alistair Griffin’s winter warmer returns with classic Christmas tunes, carols and bags of festive cheer, heralded by a brass band.

The Big Christmas Concert takes a festive musical journey from acoustic versions of traditional carols to Wizzard, Slade and The Pogues, as audiences sing along and sip mulled wine while enjoying the fairytale of old York. Christmas jumpers and Christmas attire are encouraged; a prize will be given for the best costume. Box office: www.alistairgriffin.com.

One way or another, you’re gonna get ya ticket for Blondie at Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer

Booking ahead: Blondie, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 22 2023

LOWER East Side New York trailblazers Blondie are off to the East Coast next summer to play Britain’s largest outdoor concert arena.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame icons will be led as ever by pioneering frontwoman/songwriter Debbie Harry, 77, guitarist/conceptual mastermind Chris Stein and powerhouse drummer Clem Burke, joined by former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, guitarist Tommy Kessler and keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen.

Blondie join Sting, Pulp, rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires, N-Dubz, Olly Murs and Mamma Mia! among Scarborough OAT’s 2023 headliners, with plenty more to be added. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

The Waterboys: 40th anniversary celebrations in 2023, taking in York Barbican

Booking ahead too: The Waterboys, York Barbican, October 12 2023, 7.30pm

GREAT, Scott will be back for yet another evening with The Waterboys at York Barbican, this time to mark the Scottish-founded folk, rock, soul and blues band’s 40th anniversary.

Mike Scott, 63, has made a habit of playing the Barbican, laying on the “Big Music” in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015,  2018 and October 2021, since when The Waterboys have released 15th studio album All Souls Hill in May. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Grayson Perry: A Show All About You…and surely about him too at Harrogate Convention Centre?

A brush with an artist: Grayson Perry: A Show All About You, Harrogate Convention Centre, October 1 2023, 7.30pm

ARTIST, iconoclast and TV presenter Grayson Perry follows up A Show For Normal People with A Show All About You, wherein he asks, “What makes you, you?”. Is there a part deep inside  that no-one understands? Have you found your tribe or are you a unique human being? Or is it more complicated than that?

Perry, “white, male, heterosexual, able bodied, English, southerner, baby boomer and member of the establishment”, takes a mischievous look at the nature of identity, promising to make you laugh, shudder, and reassess who you really are. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

Also recommended but sold out: The Cure, The Lost World Tour 2022, Leeds First Direct Arena, Tuesday, doors, 6pm

ROBERT Smith’s ever-changing band play Leeds for the first time since September 21 1985 at the whatever-happened-to-the Queens Hall. Expect a long, long set of all the heavenly, hippy pop hits, the gloomier goth stalwarts and more than a glimpse of the long-promised 14th studio album, Songs Of A Lost World, pencilled in for 2023.