Tag: York Shakespeare Project

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 17, from Gazette & Herald

Gary Oldman in reflective mood in the dressing room as he returns to York Theatre Royal to perform Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, now into its week of press shows. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

YORK International Shakespeare Festival’s tenth anniversary programme is among Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations as April blossoms.

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979,  to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1987.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns and additional seats on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Katy Stephens’ White Witch and Aslan the lion in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

Touring show of the week: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7pm plus 2pm Thursday and Saturday matinees

STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun (Alfie Richards), Aslan, the Lion (Stanton Wright), and the coldest, cruellest White Witch (Katy Stephens). 

Directed by Michael Fentiman, this breathtaking stage adaptation brings magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets to CS Lewis’s allegorical novel. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Philipp Sommer: Delivering his riposte to Shakespeare’s hatchet job on Richard III in Re-Lording Richard 3.0

Festival of the week: York International Shakespeare Festival, until May 4

YORK International Shakespeare Festival is marking its tenth anniversary with a programme incorporating artists from the Netherlands for the first time; Croatia for Marin Drzic Day; Ukrainian artists from Ivano Frankisk and Bulgaria.

Among the highlights will be Berlin actor Philipp Sommer’s riposte to Shakespeare’s hatchet job on York’s own Richard III, Re-Lording Richard 3.0 (tomorrow); Olga Annenko’s Codename Othello (Friday); York company Hoglets Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Mischief with Team Titania and Team Oberon (Saturday); Stillington writer/actor/director Alexander Wright’s immersive, existential Hamlet Show (April 28 to 30); Ridiculusmus’s Alas! Poor Yorick (April 29) and the Shakespeare’s Speakeasy play in a day (May 2). For the full programme and tickets, head to: yorkshakes.co.uk.

George Young’s Henry VI in York Shakespeare Project’s Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3. Picture: John Saunders

Condensed play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, “I Am Myself Alone”, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

UNIVERSITY of California Santa Barbara theatre professor Irwin Appel, artistic director of Naked Shakes, directs York Shakespeare Project in his condensed, physical theatre version of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy.

A bare space, a crown and a throne meet an ensemble cast in a powerful show of “actor-generated theatricality and transformation”, wherein they tell a cautionary tale of power and greed that charts how a tyrant can rise in a torn and broken society. Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk or tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Pip Cook, left, Josie Morley and Keeley Lane in Badapple Theatre Company’s revival of Kate Bramley’s The Thankful Village, playing York Theatre Royal Studio from today

Wartime memorial of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in The Thankful Village, York Theatre Royal Studio, today to Saturday, 7pm plus 2.30pm matinees, today and Saturday

IN a new departure for Green Hammerton touring company Badapple Theatre, writer and artistic director Kate Bramley will be playing a live score for the first time to accompany her poignant First World War comedy-drama The Thankful Village.

A story of hope, humour and humanity is seen through the eyes of three Yorkshire women from the same rural household, below and above stairs. Left behind to cope after their men-folk march off to Flanders, Pip Cook’s Edie, Keeley Lane’s Victoria and Josie Morley’s Nellie each face up to the challenges in their own way as they wait anxiously for news of their loved ones far away. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Matt Goss: Tipping his hat to The Hits & More at York Barbican on Friday. Picture: Paul Harris

Pop concert of the week: Matt Goss, The Hits & More, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm

MATT Goss, the Bros pop pin-up-turned-Las Vegas showman, says: “Trust me, what I’ve learnt over the years being on countless stages around the world, this will be your best night of the year.”

Now living in central London after many years of blue skies in America, Goss, 56, will be celebrating all he has achieved in his music career and beyond in a rock’n’roll show, but still with a horn section (featured previously in the Matt Goss Experience show with the MG Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic at York Barbican in April 2023). Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, Clayton Jones, Dawn Bailey and Chris Brooker, Milton, Rooms, Malton, Friday. 8pm

HEADLINER Clayton Jones,  the 2017 Last Minute Comedy Comedian of the Year winner, covers everyday topics of marriage, children, being mixed race, school life and growing up in London in his observational comedy.

Newly turned 50, affable Dawn Bailey views life as a mum through happy specs and giddy knickers (in her own words). Host Chris Brooker combines infectious energy with original material and inspired improvisation. Box office:  01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Josienne Clarke: Performing the songs of Sandy Denny with full folk-rock band at Pocklington Arts Centre

Folk gig of the week: Across The Evening Sky: Josienne Clarke Sings The Songs Of Sandy Denny, Pocklington Arts Centre, Friday, 8pm

MELANCHOLIC  singer, songwriter and interpreter of traditional song Josienne Clarke leads a full folk-rock band – guitar, piano, bass and drums – in a new show dedicated to Sandy Denny, whose songs are her “north star – a constant guiding light”.

“If I can take one young fan of mine and introduce them to Sandy, in a context that they can grab hold of,” she says. “If they like my music, they will love Sandy. And that would be the whole concept sorted. To pass it on, so that these songs can go on forever.” Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

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American professor Irwin Appel shakes up Henry VI for York Shakespeare Project

York Shakespeare Project in rehearsal for Irwin Appel’s production of Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3, I Am Myself Alone. Picture: John Saunders

HOW come an American theatre professor is directing York Shakespeare Project’s production of Henry VI for York International Shakespeare Festival next week?

Irwin Appel, Professor of Theater at University of California Santa Barbara and founder and artistic director of Naked Shakes, first encountered YSP in 2015 when he came to York on a tour of Europe researching Shakespeare’s History plays. He saw Maggie Smales’s all-female Henry V, a few days after visiting Agincourt, and loved it so much,  he vowed to come back to direct for YSP.

Ten years on, that vow comes into play from April 22 to 26 when Irwin stages Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, I Am Myself Alone, in a version of the trilogy condensed into one play running for two and a half hours for a York community cast of 21.

“In 2014 I had the ridiculous idea to distil the eight Shakespeare History plays into two plays, and I wanted them not to be ‘marathons’ but each to be the length of a typical Shakespeare play: no more than three hours,” recalls Irwin, who has been producing the Bard’s work in the United States and internationally since 2006.

“I entitled it The Death Of Kings, a line from Shakespeare’s Richard II, divided into I Came But For Mine Own, comprising Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 and Henry V, and The White Rose And The Red, comprising Richard III and the Henry VI trilogy.”

He then went on a year’s sabbatical that brought him to Europe in 2015. “I’m also a professional actor, director, composer and sound designer, who’d never imagined he would be a college professor,” says Irwin, who trained at Princeton University and the Juilliard School in New York City.

“I was pursuing ‘being a star’ as an actor, but then came to the point where I wanted an artistic home, and I’ve been at University of California Santa Barbara for 26 years now, but also continuing to direct and design throughout the United States, Europe and in China.”

He used his research sabbatical to seek out plays, theatres and sites in Britain and France. “I wasn’t looking for historical accuracy per se in plays, because I wanted to feel the ground beneath my feet, to observe how the light came into a room or a castle, for example, and went to some extremely interesting places, like being on the battlefield of Agincourt on October 25 2015, the 600th anniversary of Henry V’s victory there. That was a quite a feeling,” he says.

He decided he would travel from London to York and it was then that he saw a small advert for YSP’s Henry V. “I fell in love with the production, set in a munitions factory in the First World War. I fell in love with York. I love cities that are very contemporary but at the same time present their history, and I reckon York does that with great balance.

Welcome to York: York Shakespeare Project chair and producer Tony Froud, right, greets American university professor Irwin Appel, director of next week’s production of Henry VI

Once Irwin’s Henry VI application was successful,  he headed back to York for auditions last November at Southlands Methodist Church. “I was in Europe, playing Shylock at the Estates Theatre in Prague, where Mozart had debuted his opera Don Giovanni in 1787,” he recalls. “After that I came to York and was very excited to cast Maggie [Smales] as Warwick after seeing her Henry V.”

Creating his Henry VI has been a labour of love. “Through The Death Of Kings, I have an affinity for the History plays, which I feel have some of Shakespeare’s greatest material,” says Irwin .

“I’ve condensed the plays to tell the story and the character arcs at a manageable length. I’ve chosen I Am Myself Alone [as the subtitle] as it’s a line that Richard, Duke of Gloucester – later to be Richard III – says about himself at the end but it also applies to Henry VI and many other characters in the play and encapsulates what the play is about.”

Building his production around a bare space, a crown and a throne, he will utilise his ensemble cast to “engender actor-generated theatricality and transformation in a physical theatre piece that tells a cautionary tale of power and greed that shows how a tyrant can rise in a torn and broken society”.

The theatrical style will be in keeping with Naked Shakes, the company he founded at UC Santa Barbara and is now into its 20th season.

“Our desire is to create raw, energetic and thrilling Shakespeare productions through using the power of the actors and the imagination of the audience,” says Irwin, who has been joined in the rehearsal room by movement coach Christina McCarthy, from UC Santa Barbara, and fight director Jeff Mills, from DePaul University, Chicago.

“When I set out to do The Death Of Kings, I was not looking to do ‘museum Shakespeare’ but Shakespeare as an allegory for our times. When I did it in the States, it was at the time of the primaries when Donald Trump first ran to be the Republican presidential candidate – trying to be king.”

Looking forward to next week’s run, Irwin says: “I feel that this is a truly special company. I’m honoured that they invited me and I would like to make the people of York proud that they allowed an American to direct a play about the House of York in York.”

York International Shakespeare Festival presents York Shakespeare Project in Henry VI: I Am Myself Alone, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 22 to 26, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk or tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

In Focus: A Conversation with Irwin Appel, York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, April 26, 5pm

Irwin Appel

IN this special session, Professor Anne-Marie Evans interviews Irwin Appel to discuss his varied and distinguished career, Henry VI, the importance of the York International Shakespeare Festival and York Shakespeare Project, and all things Shakespeare.

Evans is Professor of American Literature and Pedagogy and Head of School for Humanities at York St John University; Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a long-time Shakespeare fan.

As a professional director, actor, and composer/sound designer, Irwin Appel has worked with the New York, Oregon, Orlando, Utah, New Jersey and other prominent Shakespeare and regional theare companies throughout the United States.

In Europe, he has played the title role in King Lear for Lit Moon World, as well as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 for the Prague Shakespeare Company.

In November 2024, he played Shylock at the Estates Theatre in Prague, where Mozart premiered the opera Don Giovanni in 1787. He is the founder and artistic director of Naked Shakes, producing Shakespeare’s plays in the USA and internationally since 2006.

In 2023, Naked Shakes was selected to bring his original adaptation of eight Shakespeare’s history plays entitled The Death Of Kings as the closing performance in the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival in Italy.

He has led workshops and presentations about Naked Shakes throughout the US and in China, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

He is Professor of Theater at University of California Santa Barbara and is a graduate of Princeton University and the Juilliard School.

Admission is free; tickets at yorkshakes.co.uk. 

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More Things To Do in York, looking in great Shakes over the Easter holidays. Here’s Hutch’s List No.17, from The York Press

Gary Oldman in rehearsal for his return to York Theatre Royal in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, now heading into a week of press shows. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

YORK International Shakespeare Festival’s tenth anniversary programme is among Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations as April blossoms.

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979,  to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1987.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns and additional seats on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The Counterfeit Sixties: Swinging into Sixties’ recollections at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre tonight

Tribute show of the week: The Counterfeit Sixties Show, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm

THE Counterfeit Sixties pay tribute to 25 acts of the Swinging Sixties in a show encompassing everything from that golden pop age, from the clothes to flashbacks of television programmes, adverts and clips from the original bands.

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Dave Clark Five, The Kinks and The Monkees all feature in a hit parade performed by musicians who have worked with The Searchers, The Ivy League, The Fortunes and The Tremeloes. Tickets update: Limited availability on 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Some Enchanted Evening: Celebrating Rodgers and Hammerstein with the English Musical Theatre Orchestra at the Grand Opera House, York

Show tunes of the week: English Musical Theatre Orchestra presents Some Enchanted Evening, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

 EXPERIENCE the grandeur of Broadway as the English Musical Theatre Orchestra serenades you with show tunes from I Could Have Danced All Night ,People Will Say We’re In Love and You’ll Never Walk Alone to Getting To Know You and My Favourite Things.

Two star vocalists join the orchestra of 26 musicians, placing the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein centre-stage in renditions of songs from Oklahoma, The Sound Of Music, South Pacific and The King And I. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Full steam ahead: next stop Grand Opera House, York, for The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe on 2025 tour

Touring show of the week: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun (Alfie Richards), Aslan, the Lion (Stanton Wright), and the coldest, cruellest White Witch (Katy Stephens). 

Directed by Michael Fentiman, this breathtaking stage adaptation brings magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets to CS Lewis’s allegorical novel. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Philipp Sommer: Performing Re-Lording Richard 3.0 at York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium on April 24 at 7.30pm as part of York International Shakespeare Festival

Festival of the week: York International Shakespeare Festival, April 22 to May 4

YORK International Shakespeare Festival is marking its tenth anniversary with a programme incorporating artists from the Netherlands for the first time; Croatia for Marin Drzic Day; Ukrainian artists from Ivano Frankisk and Bulgaria.

Among the highlights will be Berlin actor Philipp Sommer’s riposte to Shakespeare’s hatchet job on York’s own Richard III, Re-Lording Richard 3.0 (April 24); Olga Annenko’s Codename Othello (April 25); York company Hoglets Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Mischief with Team Titania and Team Oberon (April 26); Stillington writer/actor/director Alexander Wright’s immersive, existential Hamlet Show (April 28 to 30); Ridiculusmus’s Alas! Poor Yorick (April 29) and the Shakespeare’s Speakeasy play in a day (May 2). For the full programme and tickets, head to: yorkshakes.co.uk.

York Shakespeare Project in rehearsal for Irwin Appel’s production of Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3 for York International Shakespeare Festival. Picture: John Saunders

Condensed play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, “I Am Myself Alone”, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 22 to 26, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

UNIVERSITY of California Santa Barbara theatre professor Irwin Appel, artistic director of Naked Shakes, directs York Shakespeare Project in his condensed, physical theatre version of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy.

A bare space, a crown and a throne meet an ensemble cast in a powerful show of “actor-generated theatricality and transformation”, wherein they tell a cautionary tale of power and greed that charts how a tyrant can rise in a torn and broken society. Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk or tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Matt Goss: Tipping his hat to The Hits & More at York Barbican next Friday. Picture: Paul Harris

Pop concert of the week: Matt Goss, The Hits & More, York Barbican, April 25, 8pm

MATT Goss, the Bros pop pin-up-turned- Las Vegas showman, says: “Trust me, what I’ve learnt over the years being on countless stages around the world, this will be your best night of the year.”

Now living in central London after many years of blue skies in America, Goss, 56, will be celebrating all he has achieved in his music career and beyond in a rock’n’roll show, but still with a horn section (featured previously in the Matt Goss Experience show with the MG Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic at York Barbican in April 2023). Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

In Focus: Badapple Theatre Company in The Thankful Village, York Theatre Royal Studio, April 24 to 26, 7pm and 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees

Pip Cook, left, Josie Morley and Keeley Lane in Badapple Theatre Company’s revival of Kate Bramley’s The Thankful Village, playing York Theatre Royal Studio next week

IN a new departure for Green Hammerton touring company Badapple Theatre, writer and artistic director Kate Bramley will be playing a live score for the first time to accompany her poignant First World War comedy-drama The Thankful Village.

Bramley is an international touring musician, who started her professional music career aged 17, with tours of the USA and UK, but this will be the first time that she has made a musical contribution to a show by her Green Hammerton company, specialists for 27 years in touring “theatre on your doorstep”.

Kate Bramley: Playing a live score in a Badapple Theatre Company production for the first time at York Theatre Royal Studio

“It has been our ambition since the play was created back in 2014 to have a live score accompanying the story,” says Kate. “Thanks to our collaboration with York Theatre Royal, I will appear with the stellar 2025 cast of Pip Cook, Keeley Lane and Josie Morley.

“I’m delighted to be performing at York Theatre Royal this spring. One performance is already sold out, so we’re looking forward to an exciting time at my favourite local theatre.”

Boasting original songs and music by Sony Radio Academy Award winner Jez Lowe, Bramley’s story of hope, humour and humanity is seen through the eyes of three Yorkshire women from the same rural household, below and above stairs.

Badapple Theatre Company in the rehearsal room for The Thankful Village

Left behind to cope after their men-folk march off to Flanders, Pip Cook’s Edie, Keeley Lane’s Victoria and Josie Morley’s Nellie each face up to the challenges in their own way as they wait anxiously for news of their loved ones far away. Box office:  01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Did you know?

“THE Thankful Villages” were those rare places that lost no men in the Great War because all those who left to serve came home again.

Badapple Theatre Company’s poster for The Thankful Village at York Theatre Royal Studio

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REVIEW: York Shakespeare Project in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York ***1/2

Effie Warboys’ Silvia, Nick Patrick Jones’s Proteus, right, and Thomas Jennings’s Valentine in York Shakespeare Project’s The Two Gentlemen Of Verona. Picture: John Saunders

AMERICAN writer, director, performer and teaching artist Tempest Wisdom [they/them] headed to York to pursue a Masters degree in theatre-making at the University of York in 2021.

Itinerant from the days of their father serving in the Marine Corps., always moving every couple of years, like so many before  however, once here they never left, first setting up York’s variation on Seattle’s Bard in a Bar, the Shakespeare karaoke night Bard at the Bar in The Den at  Micklegate Social.

Now, after directing Anorak in Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios in the Theatre Royal Studio earlier this year, Tempest is at the helm of York Shakespeare Project for the first time for the rarely performed  The Two Gentlemen Of Verona: “possibly the first play Shakespeare ever wrote and certainly the only one with a part for a canine,” they say.

Tempest has re-set Shakespeare’s 1593 comedy of cross-dressing, mistaken identity and courtly love as a play within a play, staged by Monkgate Music Hall, “a bawdy, raucous place” peopled by a host of Victorian variety acts.

Liz Quinlan’s sharp-shooting Speed, left, and Lara Stafford’s comedy act Launce. Picture: John Saunders

On the piano throughout is musical director Stuart Lindsay in a dapper waistcoat beneath a luxuriant moustache. On the piano too is a portrait of Queen Victoria, her face as “not amused” as ever. Determined to amuse, however, is Jodie Mulliah’s Chairwoman. No stranger to steering talent in the right direction as a secondary school drama teacher, she keeps her gavel busy in introducing act after act.

Their task is to deliver both their speciality act and lines of Shakespeare’s text, be it the North America golden gunslinger Speed (multi-disciplinary theatre-artist-turned scientist Liz Quinlan, in her YSP debut and first theatrical adventure for seven years), or Lara Stafford’s Launce in a comedy double act with canine companion Crab (a wooden puppet handled with the aid of a drawer handle on its besuited back by puppeteer Wilf Tomlinson).

Stuart Green, who returned to the stage after 35 years last year as The Torturer in York Theatre Royal’s community play Sovereign, has particular fun sending up furniture-chewing acting skills as the pompous Antonio. Forever looking for his Hamlet, his performance appears to be torn from Michael Green’s book The Art Of Coarse Acting.

For “proper” acting, look no further than Mark Payton’s Duke of Milan. Once part of Riding Lights Theatre Company before becoming an English teacher, he is belatedly treading the boards anew, every last vowel the thespian in resonance and intonation.

Dapper pianist Stuart Lindsay and the portrait of Queen Victoria in the Monkgate Music Hall. Picture: John Saunders

The sparring of Charlie Barrs’ Panthino and Four Wheel Drive director Anna Gallon’s Lucetta and later the antics of the Outlaws (Pearl Mollison, K Maneerot and Celeste North Finocchi) add to the merriment and mayhem.

What of the ‘Two Gents’, you ask. Ah yes, there’s the play. Step forward, in dapper straw hats and clowns’ rouge cheeks, the gentlemanly, but not very gentlemanly, all too arrogant and deceitful Proteus (Nick Patrick Jones) and Valentine (Thomas Jennings), not born a gentleman, but definitely as romantic as his name.

Proteus should be focusing on love-struck Julia (Lily Geering) but has his wandering eye on his friend Valentine’s secret love, Silvia (Effie Warboys), who the Duke of Milan has earmarked for the socially superior but unctuous Thurio (Charlie Spencer in circus ringmaster attire). 

Jones’s programme profile speaks of having “no experience of music hall or vaudeville, but in many ways his whole life is an extended Buster Keaton routine”. As it happens,  it is Jennings who reminds you more of the “Great Stone Face” of American silent cinema, but Jones is suitably duplicitous, dark beneath the light air.

Warboys, one of the best discoveries of York Shakespeare Project’s recent years and now studying for a Masters at the Shakespeare Institute, gives her best performance yet as Silvia. As a bonus, she returns to her musical roots to reveal a delightful singing voice in The Lass Of Richmond Hill.

Tempest Wisdom: Directing York Shakespeare Project for the first time

Geering is in fine form too, righteous in Julia’s indignation at Proteus’s deceptions, but canny, mischievous and nimble when taking on a disguise.

Jonathan Cook gives the requisite strong performance as the strongman variety act (Sir Eglamour) in a show full of such cameos, but amid so much physical comedy and clowning, with bursts of song too (Champagne Charlie et al), Tempest ensures Shakespeare’s expose of bad behaviour still hits home

Tempest’s cast makes use not only of Vivian Wilson’s set design but the stairs, doorways and mezzanine level too for a frantic climactic chase around the auditorium in Benny Hill style. Make that chase after breathless chase. Everyone then assembles, like a baying public gallery, to see Proteus being put in his place: wiping the smile off comedy’s face, if only briefly.

Shakespeare’s plays have a habit of running to three hours, and this production is no different, but comedies would always benefit from a shorter running time, for all the fast pace here.

Tempest Wisdom’s show, however, is full of original ideas, bags of energy, not-so-courtly romance, topical sexual politics, music hall ribaldry and slapstick aplenty.

York Shakespeare Project in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight at 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. 

Nick Patrick Jones’s Proteus and Lily Geering’s Julia in disguise in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona. Picture: John Saunders
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What’s On in Ryedale, York & beyond when two plays go to sea & AI comes to dance. Hutch’s List No. 39, from Gazette & Herald

The Whitby Rebels cast on a boat trip in Scarborough’s South Bay: from left, Keith Bartlett, Duncan MacInnes, Jacky Naylor, Jacqueline King, Louise Mai Newberry and Kieran Foster

A NAUTICAL Yorkshire drama, a scene-stealing Shakespearean dog, a long-lasting folk duo and a “bit of rough” comedian spark Charles Hutchinson’s interest for the week ahead.

World premiere of the week: The Whitby Rebels, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until November 2, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

IN Whitby Harbour, in the summer of 1991, something extraordinary happened. A humble pleasure boat set sail for the Arctic crewed by misfits, pensioners and the vicar for Egton and Grosmont, North Yorkshire.

This motley crew was assembled by Captain Jack Lammiman to complete a daring mission: to erect a plaque honouring Whitby whaling Captain William Scoresby senior on a volcanic island hundreds of miles north of Iceland. Bea Roberts’s new play tells their true story, boat on stage et al. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.

Nick Patrick Jones’s Proteus, left, and Mark Payton’s Duke of Milan in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s The Two Gentlemen Of Verona. Picture: John Saunders

Comedy play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

 ‘TWO Gents’: possibly Shakespeare’s first play and definitely the only one with a part for a dog. But can the newly employed performers at Monkgate Music Hall pull off their production?

Under-rehearsed knife throwers, strongmen, musicians and comedians must pool their skills in Tempest Wisdom’s dazzling take on this rarely performed comedy, delivered by York Shakespeare Project. “Book now for the event of the 19th century!” says Tempest. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

York musical actress Rachel Higgs in the poster for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ Songs For A New World

Unconventional musical of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions presents: Songs For A New World, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

ON the heels of last week’s debut NCEM collaboration with fellow York company Wharfemede Productions, The Last Five Years, Black Sheep Theatre perform another Jason Robert Brown work, 1995’s Songs For A New World.

Defying conventional musical theatre formats, Brown and original director Daisy Prince say the non-linear show is “neither musical play nor revue”, but exists as a “very theatrical song cycle” that explores such universal themes as hope, faith, love and loss in its emotionally charged songs. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/blacksheeptheatreproductions/.

Our Star Theatre Company cast members outside York Minster on October 15, when the Ledbury company staged Death(s) At Sea at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre. On Friday they will be in Pickering

Sea, sailors and seriously bad acting: Our Star Theatre Company in Death(s) At Sea, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Friday, 7.30pm

A SMALL theatre company is performing its new murder mystery Death At Sea, but despite the cast’s best efforts, everything goes wrong in the telling of a thriller set on a small ship carrying only five passengers and its captain.

When one passenger, Mr Inus, is found dead, the others speculate and turn on each other until the real murderer is caught…but that isn’t how this play (within a play) goes! Props fail, the set falls down, actors get drunk and suffer concussion, and conversations in the wings reveal too much. Can they make it to the end before one of them really kills someone? Find out in Eleanor Catherine Smart’s nautical drama on Friday. Box office: 01751474833or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Company Wayne McGregor in Autobiography, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Andrej Uspenski

Dance show of the week: Company Wayne McGregor, Autobiography, V102 and V103, York Theatre Royal, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm

GENETIC code, AI and choreography merge in a Wayne McGregor work that reimagines and remakes itself anew for every performance. Layering choreographic imprints over personal memoir and in dialogue with a specially created algorithm that hijacks McGregor’s DNA data,Autobiography “upends the traditional nature of dance-making as artificial intelligence and instinct converge in creative authorship”.

Now, AISOMA, a new AI tool developed with Google Arts and Culture – “utilising machine-learning trained on hundreds of hours of McGregor’s choreographic archive – overwrites initial configurations to present fresh movement options to the performers, injecting unfamiliar and often startling content into the choreographic ecosystem”. “Life, writing itself anew,” explains McGregor. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

While & Matthews: Playing Hunmanby on closing night of 30th anniversary tour

Folk gig of the week: While & Matthews, Hunmanby Village Hall, near Filey, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE 30th anniversary tour of the longest-lasting female folk duo, singer-songwriters Chris While and Julie Matthews, concludes this weekend at Hunmanby Village Hall, where they sold out two years ago. Together they have played more than 2,500 gigs, appeared on 100 albums, written hundreds of original songs and reached millions of people around the world.

Chris (vocals, guitar, banjo, dulcimer and percussion) and Julie (vocals, piano, guitar, mandolin and bouzouki) released their 13th studio album, Days Like These, on Fat Cat Records last month. Once again they cover a wide range of topics and the full spectrum of human emotions on 12 tracks. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

Arthur Smith: Grumpy old man of comedy at Helmsley Arts Centre

Comedy turn of the week: An Audience With Arthur Smith, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 7.30pm

COMPERE, playwright, panellist, performer and Edinburgh Fringe stalwart Arthur Smith worked previously as a road sweeper, dustman, market researcher and teacher. He even advertised chicken burgers in supermarkets dressed as a fox.

A career in stand-up comedy was the only one that could follow a build-up like that, he decided, since when he has appeared on quiz shows and Loose Ends, been a regular Grumpy Old Man and Countdown wordsmith and presented BBC Radio 4’s Excess Baggage and Radio 2’s The Smith Lectures. He describes himself as Radio 4’s “bit of rough”. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Pat Fulgoni Blues Experience: Returning to Milton Rooms, Malton

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club, Pat Fulgoni Blues Experience, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 31, 8pm

SINGER Pat Fulgoni returns to Ryedale Blues Club with his band of Jacob Beckwith on guitar, Rory Wells on bass, Sam Bolt on keys and Zebedee Sylvester on drums.

Expect soaring soulful vocals over vibey guitar and piano-orientated blues in a set originals complemented by renditions of Ray Charles, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker, Jimi Hendrix and Robert Johnson. Box office: 01653 692240 or themiltonrooms.com.

In Focus: The English Civil War comes to Nunnington Hall this half-term

Nunnington Hall: Recalling the English Civil War over the autumn half-term. Picture: Andrew Davies

VISITORS to Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, can dive back in history to the time of the English Civil War throughout the autumn half-term.

From Saturday, October 26 to Friday, November 1, you can train up to become a soldier, with family games such as archery and hobby-horse races, or become a spy for the Royalist side by cracking the secret message in a code breaker trail.

For one weekend only, on November 2 and 3, the grounds of the National Trust property will be turned into an English Civil War encampment by the United Kingdom’s longest-running re-enactment society, The Sealed Knot.

Families will be invited to try on armour, chat to costumed re-enactors and watch show-stopping musket drills happening throughout the day.

Inside the house, children can enjoy playing with the shadow puppet theatre and the Civil War-themed crafts.

Sarah Nolan, visitor experience officer at Nunnington Hall, says: “We’re delighted to bring the UK’s oldest, and Europe’s biggest, re-enactment society to Nunnington and allow our visitors to experience history at its most immersive.

The Sealed Knot: Taking part in the English Civil War activities at Nunnington Hall. Picture: Levitt Parkes

“There’s a fantastic link between Nunnington Hall and the English Civil War, as it’s where Roundhead soldiers lived during the siege of nearby Helmsley Castle, 380 years ago!

“We’ve put together a host of children’s activities to choose from, offering a fun day out for all the family.”

In addition, Nunnington Hall is decorated for autumn and a range of seasonal treats is available in the tearoom.

Normal admission applies for access to the house, gardens and all activities; entry is free for National Trust members and under fives.

Nunnington Hall is open every day until Sunday, November 3, from 10.30am to 5pm, with last entry at 4.15pm. Normal admission applies with free admission for National Trust members and under fives.

For more information or to plan a visit, go to: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall,

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Tempest Wisdom turns York Shakespeare Project’s ‘Two Gents’ into Victorian music hall with scene-stealing dog at Theatre@41

Puppeteer Wilf Tomlinson and a bare-footed Lara Stafford (Launce) in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s The Two Gentlemen Of Verona. Picture: Tony Froud

WHAT can a dog puppet do that a human can’t? Find out in York Shakespeare Project’s  The Two Gentlemen Of Verona at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from tomorrow to Saturday.

‘Two Gents’ is possibly the first play Shakespeare ever wrote and certainly the only one with a part for a canine.

Settling into a mission to bring all Shakespeare’s plays to York on a second cycle, these facts could have presented YSP with some interesting challenges. Luckily YSP found a director eager to deliver a fascinating take on this 1593 comedy.

Originally from the United States of America, Tempest Wisdom studied theatre at the University of Chicago before pursuing a Masters degree in theatre-making at the University of York.

Already making their mark on the York theatre scene as the creator and host of the bi-monthly Bard at the Bar, a Shakespeare karaoke night at Micklegate Social, now Tempest is bringing their enthusiasm and talent to YSP’s autumn production.

“I’m setting The Two Gentlemen Of Verona in a Victorian music hall,” says Tempest. “A bawdy, raucous place where a host of variety acts will come together to stage the play.”

Theatre@41 will be transformed for the occasion, giving cast members  the exciting challenge of becoming variety performers, each delivering their special act as well as lines from Shakespeare’s play, including Launce with his performing dog, Crab.

Nick Patrick Jones’s Proteus and Mark Payton’s Duke Of Milan in the rehearsal room. Picture: John Saunders

“The play-within-a-play structure combines Shakespeare’s signature wit with the razzle-dazzle and slapstick of an evening of variety,” says YSP chair Tony Froud. “A live pianist will add to the Victorian feel of the evening; Shakespeare’s characters will seamlessly rub shoulders with classic music-hall songs, such as Champagne Charlie and The Lass Of Richmond Hill, as the newly assembled company of knife throwers, strongmen, musicians and comedians pool their skills to bring together this rarely-performed comedy.”

Tempest explains the rationale behind the music-hall setting. “Two Gentlemen is one of Shakespeare’s earliest works, and you can already see the characteristic zaniness of his comedies beginning to take shape: cross-dressing, love songs, ribald humour.

“In my opinion, the best Shakespeare productions use their setting to complement the themes and tone of the text, and I thought a music hall, with its quick pace, slapstick and bawdiness, would be the best way to bring that zaniness to its full potential.”

The Two Gentlemen Of Verona is known by some as the play enjoyed by Dame Judi Dench’s Elizabeth I in the 1998 film Shakespeare In Love. The Queen is particularly taken by the performing dog, Crab, who, in time honoured fashion, outshines the actors.

The appearance of a dog is one of the most famous features of the play. In YSP’s production, Crab will be a puppet, built and brought to life by the capable hands of York theatre-maker and puppeteer Wilf Tomlinson.

“Working with Wilf is a joy,” says YSP cast regular, Lara Stafford, who plays Crab’s owner, Launce. “Crab might not have any lines but he’s got a huge presence; it’s a complete double act, and we’re having a great time in rehearsal. There are a lot of things human actors aren’t allowed to do that dog puppets can get away with. It’s going to be very funny.”

In the spotlight: director Tempest Wisdom

Tempest Wisdom

Where are you from?

“My answer changes depending on how much time you have! My father served in the Marine Corps through the entirety of my childhood, so I had a typical ‘military brat’ upbringing, moving across the world every couple of years.

“To this day, I haven’t lived anywhere longer than four years, and that was an anomaly. That’s all going to change, though: rehearsals for this production began on my third Moving-To-York anniversary, and if I have my way, I’ll be sticking around for several more.”

Where did you study and what part did Shakespeare play in your education?

“I went to school at the University of Chicago, where I had the honour of studying with the Shakespeare scholar David Bevington. He came to every production the Shakespeare troupe on campus ever put on, and would host a wine-and-cheese dramaturgy night at his home for the team.

“One of the highest compliments I have ever received was from him, when I played Antipholus & Antipholus in a vaudeville production of The Comedy of Errors (from which I have stolen shamelessly for Two Gents. If by any chance the director of that show ever reads this article: hello, Jacob, I’m not sorry!)

“Professor Bevington came up to me afterwards and told me it was one of his favourite student productions he’d ever seen. There are many people back in the States that I wish could see this show, and he is foremost among them.

“More recently, I received my Masters in Theatre-Making from the University of York.”

York Shakespeare Project’s poster for The Two Gentlemen Of Verona at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

What first drew you to performing and now directing Shakespeare? 

“I’ve been performing and studying Shakespeare since I was 11 years old, when I was cast in a bit part in a school production of Romeo & Juliet. I was given the iconic ‘Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?’ line in Act I, Scene I… and I completely flubbed it!

“To me, the fun of directing Shakespeare in particular, and really any exciting script, is in the storytelling. These are densely packed texts on both the macro and micro level, and it’s my job as director to puzzle out how to unpack as much as possible, to use the mechanics of the stage to reveal, highlight, comment or inflect.

“In many ways it’s the same with clowning: the challenge is to tell a story to the audience as clearly as possible. In this case, the text and the clowning have brought out the best in each other. I find that happens very often with Shakespeare: the man knew how to write for clowns!”

What gave you the idea to give Two Gents a Victorian variety act/music hall setting?

“Like I said, I think a strong sense of physical comedy and clown in a performance of Shakespeare really allows the text to sing. In this case, I mean that literally: this performance features a poem from the text set to original music composed by our music director, Stuart Lindsay.

Charlie Spencer’s Thurio, left, and Nick Patrick Jones’s Proteus in the rehearsal room at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: John Saunders

“So, clown was my first port of call when thinking about staging Two Gents. In terms of the music hall specifically, this play features such a zany cast of characters, many of whom only show up for a scene or two, and I wanted to highlight each and every one of them as a series of variety acts.

“There are plenty of interesting thematic resonances between this setting and the text, particularly when it comes to the sexual politics of 16th-century courtly romance and the prudishness for which the Victorians are known; the ideas Shakespeare is exploring around the construction of a public persona and the codification of celebrity that occurred in large part as a result of the national popularity of the music hall, and the evolving social codes around how women were allowed to exist in public.

“But to be completely honest with you, the primary thought that went into the choice was ‘how much fun would it be if…?’

“And, not to spoil anything, but the play-within-a-play framework gives us leeway to question and push back against some assumptions that Shakespeare’s text makes.”

How would you describe an evening at Bard at the Bar to the uninitiated?

“I need to start by saying that Bard at the Bar was not my idea. I lived in Seattle before I came here, where Bard in a Bar was my absolute favourite social event. When I left, I missed it so terribly, and I felt so strongly that York would love this sort of thing that I sought the blessing of the creator, Anthea Carns, to bring it with me.

“Bard at the Bar is Shakespeare, ‘karaoke’ style. What that means is I choose a play and pick out a couple key scenes, which are then performed sight-unseen by volunteers on the night.

“Everyone has a script in one hand, a drink in the other, and mischief on the brain. Recently we’ve had a love sonnet performed to a dog, a fight involving a chair being thrown (a stage fight, of course, not a real one), an a cappella rendition of Tom Jones’s It’s Not Unusual, and lots and lots of dirty jokes.

“It takes place on the last Sunday of every other month in The Den at the Micklegate Social, and both lovers of Shakespeare and those completely unfamiliar with his work have told me how much fun it is.

“I unfortunately had to cancel the last one because I caught Covid, but I’m pleased to announce that we are back on for November 24 (7pm), when we’ll be doing ‘The Scottish Play’ [Macbeth]. The best place for updates on that project is @bardatthebar_york on instagram and eventbrite.”

Who’s in the York Shakespeare Project cast for ‘Two Gents’?

Effie Warboys’ Silvia and Pearl Mollison’s Outlaw mid-rehearsal. Picture: John Saunders

Proteus:   Nick Patrick Jones

Valentine: Thomas Jennings

Silvia: Effie Warboys

Julia: Lily Geering

Chairwoman:  Jodie Mulliah

Pianist:  Stuart Lindsay

Panthino:  Charlie Barrs

Speed:  Liz Quinlan

Launce : Lara Stafford

Crab:  Wilf Tomlinson

The Duke of Milan: Mark Payton

Thurio:  Charlie Spencer

Antonio:  Stuart Green

Lucetta: Anna Gallon

Sir Eglamour: Jonathan Cook

The Outlaws:  Pearl Mollison, Kay Maneerot and  Celeste North Finocchi

York Shakespeare Project in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona,  Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday (cut-price preview) to Saturday,  7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. “Book now for the event of the 19th century!” says Tempest.

Mark Payton’s Duke of Milan, left, and Charlie Spencer’s Thurio. Picture: John Saunders
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More Things To Do in York and beyond when disproving ‘rotten state of modern Britain’. Hutch’s List No. 43, from The Press

The Maniac (Andrew Isherwood), left, peruses the Anarchist’s case file as Inspector Burton (Paul Osborne) interrupts him in Black Treacle Theatre’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist . Picture: John Saunders

FROM ‘Rocky 2’ for Jason Donovan to a music-hall spin on Shakespeare’s ‘Two Gents’, Charles Hutchinson looks at a mighty crowded week ahead.

Last chance to see: Black Treacle Theatre in Accidental Of An Anarchist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

YORK company Black Treacle Theatre stage Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s uproarious 1970 Italian farce in a new adaptation by Tom Basden, creator of Plebs and Here We Go, who updates the setting to the rotten state of present-day Britain.

Shining a satirical light on bent coppers, politicians and everything in between under Jim Paterson’s direction, the riotous drama is set in a police station where a suspect has “accidentally”’ fallen to his death, but did he jump or was he pushed? As the police attempt to avoid yet another scandal, a mysterious imposter (Andrew Isherwood’s Maniac) is brought in for questioning. Cue cover-ups, corruption and (in)competence. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk

Dinosaur World Live: Invading York Theatre Royal on Monday and Tuesday

Children’s show of the week: Dinosaur World Live, York Theatre Royal, October 21, 4.30pm; October 22, 10.30am and 4.30pm

DARE to experience the dangers and delights of dinosaurs in this mind-expanding, “roarsome” interactive Jurassic adventure, winner of the 2024 Olivier Award for Best Family Show.

Grab your compass and join Dinosaur World’s intrepid explorer on a venture across uncharted territories to discover a pre-historic world of astonishing, life-like dinosaurs. Meet a host of impressive creatures, not least every child’s favourite flesh-eating giant, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. A post-show meet and greet offers brave explorers the chance to make a new dinosaur friend. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Jason Donovan, centre, as Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, back at its regular York haunt, the Grand Opera House, next week

Touring musical of the week: The Rocky Horror Show, Grand Opera House, York, October 21 to 26, Monday to Thursday, 8pm; Friday, Saturday, 5.30pm and 8.30pm

AUSTRALIAN actor, pop singer and soap star Jason Donovan returns to the Grand Opera House in a musical theatre role for the first time since playing drag act Mitzi Del Bar in Prisclla, Queen Of The Desert in November 2015.

“Rocky is panto for adults,” says Jason, 56, who is reprising his role as sweet transvestite Dr Frank N Furter on tour, after 25 years, in Richard O’Brien’s cult send-up of horror and science-fiction B-movies as squeaky clean American college couple Brad and Janet end up in the mad, seductive scientist’s Transylvanian lair. Box office: atgtickets.york.com.

Tempest Wisdom: Directing York Shakespeare Project for the first time in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona

Play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 22 to 26, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

‘TWO Gents’: possibly Shakespeare’s first play and definitely the only one with a part for a dog. But can the newly employed performers at Monkgate Music Hall pull off their production?

Under-rehearsed knife throwers, strongmen, musicians and comedians must pool their skills in Tempest Wisdom’s dazzling take on this rarely performed comedy, delivered by York Shakespeare Project. “Book now for the event of the 19th century!” says Tempest. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Steve Huison as his alter ego, working men’s club cabaret host Squinty McGinty, at The Crescent, York

Cabaret turn of the week, Steve Huison, Crescent Cabaret, The Crescent, York, October 23, doors, 6.30pm for 7.30pm start

AFTER exhibiting oil portraits of actors and musicians at Pyramid Gallery this summer, actor, artist and The Full Monty star Steve Huison presents The Crescent Cabaret in his guise as Squinty McGinty, “Agent to the Stars”, more usually to be found hosting Cabaret Saltaire.

Promoted in tandem with Pyramid Gallery owner and musician Terry Brett, who will make a stage appearance with Ukulele Sunshine Revival, this charity event will raise funds for Refugee Action York from meat raffle ticket sales at Huison’s affectionate, if outrageous, spoof of a typical northern working men’s club. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Company Wayne McGregor in Autobiography, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Andrej Uspenski

Dance show of the week: Company Wayne McGregor, Autobiography, V102 and V103, York Theatre Royal, October 25 and 26, 7.30pm

GENETIC code, AI and choreography merge in a Wayne McGregor work that reimagines and remakes itself anew for every performance. Layering choreographic imprints over personal memoir and in dialogue with a specially created algorithm that hijacks McGregor’s DNA data,Autobiography “upends the traditional nature of dance-making as artificial intelligence and instinct converge in creative authorship”.

Now, AISOMA, a new AI tool developed with Google Arts and Culture – “utilising machine-learning trained on hundreds of hours of McGregor’s choreographic archive – overwrites initial configurations to present fresh movement options to the performers, injecting unfamiliar and often startling content into the choreographic ecosystem”. “Life, writing itself anew,” explains McGregor. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Nadia Reid: Making her Band Room debut on the North York Moors

Moorland gig of the season: Nadia Reid, The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, North York Moors, October 26, 7.30pm

THE Band Room promoter Nigel Burnham first tried to book New Zealand singer-songwriter sensation Nadia Reid on her first British tour in 2017. “Persistence has paid off,” he says, welcoming her to “the greatest small venue on Earth” as part of a series of intimate, magical solo shows.

Noted for her evocative lyrics and introspective, folk-infused soundscapes, Reid has been described as “an understated, wise guide through uncertain territory”, drawing comparison with Joni Mitchell, Laura Marling, Gillian Welch and Sandy Denny. Latest album Out of My Province took her to Matthew E White’s Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia, where producer Trey Pollard surrounded her songs in luminous washes of southern country soul. Box office: 01751 432900 or thebandroom.co.uk.

Elbow: First headliners confirmed for second season of Live At York Museum Gardens, staged by Futuresound Group next summer

Gig announcement of the week: Futuresound Group presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Elbow, July 3 2025

GUY Garvey’s Mercury Prize-winning Bury band Elbow are confirmed as the first headliner for Futuresound’s second Live At York Museum Gardens concert weekend, after the sold-out success of Shed Seven’s 30th anniversary shows and Jack Savoretti this summer.

Elbow will be supported by Ripon-born, London-based singer-songwriter Billie Marten and Robin Hood’s Bay folk luminary Eliza Carthy & The Restitution. Box office: futuresound.seetickets.com/event/elbow/york-museum-gardens/3195333.

Recommended but sold out: James Swanton presents The Signal-Man, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, October 24 to 30, 7pm

James Swanton: sell-out run of The Signal-Man at York Medical Society. Picture: Jtu Photography

“SOMETHING unprecedented has happened: we’ve sold out the entire run over a month in advance! A first in my experience,” says York gothic actor and storyteller James Swanton ahead of the home-city leg of his Halloween Dickens show, The Signal-Man, with The Trial For Murder “thrown in for fun”.

“The Signal-Man is one of the most powerful ghost stories of all time and certainly the most frightening ever written by Charles Dickens. It’s paired here with The Trial For Murder, in which Dickens treats the supernatural with just as much terrifying gravity.”

James adds: “We’re privileged to be a partner event with the York Ghost Merchants for their annual Ghost Week celebrations.”

What happens in The Signal-Man? “A red light. A black tunnel. A waving figure. A warning beyond understanding. And the fear that someone – that something – is drawing closer,” says the storyteller of Dickens’s darkest explorations of the spirit world.

Over the past year, James has played monsters in The First Omen (20th Century Studios) and Tarot(Sony), as well as the title roles in two BBC chillers: The Curse Of The Ninth in Inside No. 9 and Lot No. 249, Mark Gatiss’s annual ghost story, a performance that spurred the Telegraph reviewer to call James “the scariest man on TV this Christmas”.

His Dickens work includes sell-out seasons of the Christmas Books at the Charles Dickens Museum, London, and his one-man play Sikes & Nancy at the West End’s Trafalgar Studios.

Are you too late for tickets for The Signal-Man? Fear not, James will be returning to York Medical Society from November 25 to 28 and December 2 to 5 for his annual performances of Dickens’s Christmas ghost stories, A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man, suitable for age eight upwards. Tickets for these 65-minute 7pm performances are on sale on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

One ghost story will be told each night: November 25 to 27 and December 2 to 4, A Christmas Carol; November 28, The Chimes; December 5, The Haunted Man.

In Focus: Black Sheep Theatre Productions presents Songs For A New World, National Centre for Early Music, York, Oct 24 to 26

Co-director and actor Mikhail Lim in one of myriad posters for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ production of Songs For A New World


YORK company Black Sheep Theatre Productions completes its October double bill of Jason Robert Brown productions with his 1995 theatrical song cycle Songs For A New World.

Tony Award-winning composer Brown is best known for his musicals Parade, 13 and The Last Five Years, the 2001 two-hander staged by Matthew Peter Clare’s company in collaboration with Wharfemede Productions at the NCEM last week.

First produced Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in New York, Songs For A New World defies conventional musical theatre formats. As described by Brown and original director Daisy Prince, the show is “neither musical play nor revue” but exists as a “very theatrical song cycle.”

“While it lacks a linear plot, the production explores universal themes such as hope, faith, love, and loss through a powerful collection of emotionally charged songs,” says Matthew, the production’s co-director, musical director and producer.

Black Sheep Theatre’s re-imagined production speaks directly to the growing uncertainty and tension of today’s political and social climate. Co-director Mikhail Lim and the creative team have crafted a fresh and relevant interpretation, designed to “resonate with audiences navigating the complexities of modern life”.

Songs For A New World cast member Rachel Higgs

This version expands the original cast of four to feature eight performers from York and beyond, creating a rich and multifaceted rendition.

“We believe this show will be a breakthrough in York’s theatre scene, offering something fresh, exciting, and deeply engaging,” says Mikhail. “The music alone will make audiences want to listen on repeat, but the show also connects emotionally, tugging on heartstrings and encouraging a renewed contemplation of today’s world.

“We hope audiences leave the theatre not only moved by the performances but also reflecting on the deeper themes we explore.”

After staging William Finn and James Lapine’s Falsettos at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, now Black Sheep Theatre has worked meticulously on every aspect of Songs for A New World.

Ayana Beatrice Poblete and Reggie Challenger in Songs For A New World

“The team is confident that this production will be a definitive version of Brown’s iconic work, delivering a truly unforgettable experience to all who attend,” says Matthew.

Black Sheep Theatre Productions, Songs For A New World, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, October 24 to 26, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

Creative team:
Co-director, musical director & producer: Matthew Peter Clare

Co-director: Mikhail Lim
Assistant director & choreographer: Freya McIntosh

Cast:
Ayana Beatrice Poblete; Katie Brier; Lauren Charlton-Mathews; Reggie Challenger; Rachel Higgs; Mikhail Lim; Adam Price and Natalie Walker.

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American director Irwin Appel to hold auditions for York Shakespeare Project’s Henry VI in November. Apply now

Welcome to York: York Shakespeare Project chair Tony Froud, right, greets American university professor Irwin Appel, director of next April’s production of Henry VI

YORK Shakespeare Project will hold auditions next month for Henry VI, to be directed by American university professor Irwin Appel.

In April 2025, YSP will stage all three parts of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI as one show in a condensed version of the trilogy by the University of California Santa Barbara Professor of Theater. “It promises to be a fascinating piece of theatre,” says YSP chair Tony Froud.

Irwin’s interest in YSP began in 2015 when he happened to be in York on a tour of Europe researching Shakespeare’s history plays. He saw Maggie Smales’s all-female Henry V, a few days after visiting Agincourt, and loved it, vowing to come back to direct for YSP.

Next year he returns to achieve that ambition. “I am excited and honoured at the prospect of creating some truly special magic with actors in the York community,” says Irwin.

A professional actor, director and composer/sound designer, he trained at Princeton University and the Juilliard School in New York City. He is the founder and artistic director of Naked Shakes, now in its 19th season at UC Santa Barbara.

His condensed Henry VI will draw upon his award-winning adaptation of Shakespeare, The Death Of Kings, his distillation of all of Shakespeare’s History cycle into two plays. 

The rehearsal process should be exciting. Joining Irwin, from the United States of America, for part of the rehearsal period will be two experienced colleagues: movement coach Christina McCarthy, a multi-disciplinary artist, who teaches and choreographs at UC Santa Barbara, and fight director Jeff Mills, an award-winning actor, director, fight director and musician, who teaches movement at DePaul University in Chicago.

Welcoming Irwin to York, Tony says: “Irwin is making a special visit for the auditions while he is in Europe. They will take place at Southlands Methodist Church, Bishopthorpe Road, on November 7 and 8 and at Theatre@41 on November 9 and 10.   Don’t miss the chance to be part of this unique opportunity.”

For further information and audition details, email info@yorkshakespeareproject.org.

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RIP Jeremy Muldowney, York performer, director, playwright, prop maker, teacher, linguist, church warden and sailor

Actor Jeremy Muldowney, with Her Majesty’s The Queen’s raven, Gabriel, when playing Noah in The Noah Project in 2012. Picture: Copyright of The Press, York

THE funeral of York Shakespeare Project founding member and stalwart Jeremy Muldowney will be held at Holy Trinity, East Parade, Heworth, York, tomorrow at 2pm.

In a Facebook statement announcing his death aged 70 on August 3, YSP’s committee said: “Jeremy was a great supporter of YSP and took part in Richard III in 2002 – our very first show – as well as eight further productions, including King John in 2006, which he directed.

“Many will also remember him as the first port of call for any prop, no matter how exotic or obscure. This was a role he first filled as early as our second play, The Taming Of The Shrew, in 2003. He returned to the committee in 2022 to help shape the new Project. A lovely man, much missed.”

Theatre@41, Monkgate, posted: “Having been part of York Shakespeare Project from its first ever production – Richard III in 2002 – to the beginning of its second act with a new production of Richard III in 2023, Jeremy embodied so much of what community theatre is about, pitching in all sorts of roles on stage and off, and finding creative ways to bring plays to life – no matter the setting or budget.

“At Theatre@41 particularly, he was involved as cast and crew on YSP’s productions of The Merchant Of Venice, Richard II, Troilus And Cressida and Julius Caesar. Our thoughts are with Jeremy’s family and friends.”

York Shakespeare Project actor and lawyer Clive Lyons commented on Facebook: “I can’t adequately express my sense of shock and loss – Jeremy was a friend, a teacher and a perfect gentleman.

“Though almost pathologically ‘nice’, he was never bland, and he wore his great learning so very lightly. Though his wisdom could be profound, in my own first YSP production, Merry Wives Of Windsor, he was Shallow. And infinitely kind, helpful and welcoming as I returned to acting in a new town among strangers after many years’ gap.

“At one rehearsal, I accidentally clobbered him in a staged fight. I was mortified – but Jeremy’s only, immediate and overwhelming concern was to reassure me.

“The more recent YSP Richard III #2, could be rather fraught backstage at times – but Jeremy’s calm, competent, good-humoured and reassuring presence in the wings just somehow made it all OK. In every best sense of the word, Jeremy Muldowney was a gentleman. And ‘was’ feels incomprehensible.”

Jeremy’s roles for York Shakespeare Project included Ratcliffe in Richard III, Prince Escalus in Romeo And Juliet, a Messenger in King John, Tubal in The Merchant Of Venice, Cicero and a Poet in Julius Caesar and Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York, in Henry IV.

In December 2006, he directed what Kenneth McLeish and Stephen Unwin’s A Pocket Guide To Shakespeare’s Plays described as “something of the runt in the litter of Shakespeare’s plays on English history”, King John, at Friargate Theatre.

The York Press review commented: “Director Jeremy Muldowney most certainly did not have such an attitude [to the play]. What others saw as unappealing as a fat chav’s tattoo, he viewed as the perfect opportunity for his debut Shakespeare show.

“Here were virgin fields to explore, and explore them he does within an idiosyncratic production where the most unlikely stage footwear, the docile slipper, is adapted for medieval, even militaristic purposes and swords have the look of toys from the children’s playpen.

“King John is not a tragedy – the king never rises before the self-inflicted fall – and so it has to fight its corner as a black political satire on the ineptitude of a regal buffoon. Rightly, Muldowney and his lead actor, Pulak Sahay, do not play for farcical laughs.”

In August 2012, Jeremy appeared in York company HidDen Theatre’s production of The Noah Project under the direction of Charles Hunt, York ghost walker, foreign student tutor and Mystery Plays enthusiast.

“Jeremy had the unique challenge of working with Her Majesty’s raven, Gabriel, and several doves in his role as Noah, and he did so admirably!” recalls HidDen’s tribute.

“Our big coup de theatre is a real raven and real doves,” said Mr Hunt at the time. “The raven is Her Majesty The Queen’s raven, Gabriel, from the Tower Of London, who now lives at Knaresborough Castle, where they have their own ravens, and the doves come from Dovejoy in Batley, where they’ll fly back to. We couldn’t get a real one to fly back to the ark, so that’ll have to be a stuffed one.”

The role of Noah was apt: Jeremy was an experienced sailor with his own boat and once sailed to America on the Golden Hind.

Beyond his contributions to the York stage scene as a playwright, director, performer and prop maker – drawing on his collection of objects, weaponry, muskets and swords for YSP – he was a teacher and linguist too.

Jeremy, of Second Avenue, Heworth, served as church warden at Holy Trinity for 30 years and worked as the learning and participation officer for more than 20 years at the York Minster Centre for School Visits, the young person’s educational service, where he specialised in looking at medieval texts.

Jeremy’s funeral will be taken by Holy Trinity’s vicar, the Reverend Michael Woodmansey, and will be streamed at the request of his family at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Oslo1PFwT0. Donations in memory of Jeremy may be made to the R.N.L.I (Royal National Lifeboat Institution).

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REVIEW: York Shakespeare Project, Summer Sonnets, Holy Trinity churchyard, Goodramgate, York, until Saturday ***

Effie Warboys’ Ann Walker, left, and Sally Mitcham’s Anne Lister in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets. Picture: John Saunders

YORK Shakespeare Project audiences are greeted by not one, but two testaments to the groundbreaking impact of Anne “Gentleman Jack” Lister at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate.

First, by the entrance, York Civic Trust’s rainbow plaque commemorates the Easter 1834 wedding sacraments of “Anne with an ‘E’ and Anne without”, Ann Walker, recorded as the first lesbian marriage in Great Britain. Another historic landmark in this most storied of cities.

Once inside, by the churchyard path, Anne Lister has temporarily taken on tansy beetle form in a metallic sculpture for the York Trailblazers trail of unsung heroes until September 30.

Theatre spat: Rival actresses Lily (Alexandra Logan), left, and Felicity (Grace Scott) in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets. Picture: John Saunders

In Jen Dring’s design, the beetle’s back is covered in the diary scribblings of Anne Lister: words that have helped to shape the opening to Josie Campbell’s script to accompany 12 of Shakespeare sonnets in this tenth anniversary YSP production.

YSP’s theatrical conceit is to offer an invitation to a secret wedding – spoiler alert, the nuptials of Anne Lister (Sally Mitcham) and Ann Walker (Effie Warboys) – toasted on arrival with a free celebratory drink.  

The audience is welcomed by the Reverend Goode, the “poptastic vicar and host” played by director Tony Froud, who promptly introduces himself as Ebenezer Goode in the first of a plethora of “couldn’t resist” pop culture references by Campbell. Status Quo, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones all follow, Rev Goode at one point quoting the lyrics of You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

Cleaning up: Marie-Louise Feeley’s Doreen and Helen Wilson’s Maureen, the church-cleaning double act in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets. Picture: John Saunders

Attired in York Theatre Royal costumes, Mitcham and Warboys play out the Lister-Walker betrothal, each bursting into a sonnet in the manner of characters breaking into song in a musical when there is no other form of expression that will suffice in that moment.  

Mitcham’s assertive When I Have Seen By Time’s Fell Hand Defaced will be the first of four Shakespeare sonnets making their YSP debut in this summer’s set.

Warboys follows, one of six new sonneteers in Froud’s 2024 ranks, having made her mark in cheery fashion in YSP productions such as The Tempest. As she discovers in her opening conversation with Mitcham’s Miss Lister, the challenge for all is to acclimatise to performing outdoors, against the absorbant backdrop of the church walls, under the open sky.

Emily Hansen’s Lavinia, the unflappable costume designer, in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets. Picture: John Saunders

What’s more, the nearby restaurant kitchen fan is whirring loudly and the staff are busy with bustling crockery and food prep on the 6pm shift. Not the easiest of circumstances in which to perform, and Froud’s last words of advice before the first performance were of the need for volume.

In such a space, as soon as heads turn sideways, the loss in clarity can be considerable, but only through experience does a performer learn the skill of projection. Best advice here: follow the example of Maurice Crichton and Helen Wilson, old hands at this sonneteering malarkey.

No doubt, Froud will have given post-show notes to re-emphasise that volume speaks volumes. There is a case too for having the actors move closer to the seated audience, or indeed for the seating to be moved forward, and also to project straight on as much as possible in this declamatory framework.  

Maurice Crichton’s intemperate director, Callum, offering advice to Alexandra Logan’s wilful leading lady, Lily, in Summer Sonnets. Picture: John Saunders

Crichton, in beret, cravat and exasperated Scottish accent, is playing Callum, “the far from calm director” of what turns out to be a rehearsal for an amateur company at Rev Goode’s church. And so, rather than a play within a play in keeping with Frayn’s Noises Off, Ayckbourn’s A Chorus Of Disapproval or Mischief’s The Play That Goes Wrong, instead we have sonnets within backstage shenanigans.

One by one, or two by two, we shall encounter staff, actresses and helping hands. Here come the church cleaners, debutant sonneteer Marie-Louise Feeley’s Doreen, an aspiring performer, and Wilson’s world-weary, seen-it-all-before Maureen, marigold gloves stuffed in her overalls. Her sonnet, Th’expense Of Spirit In A Waste Of Shame, is one of the high points.

Two rival actresses, steady-away Felicity (Grace Scott) and flighty young leading lady Lily (Alexandra Logan) will spar amusingly, the latter’s nascent prima-donna tendencies in the role of Anne Lister’s earlier paramour Maria Belcombe, testing Crichton’s acerbic Callum to breaking point.

Liam Godfrey’s Graham, the tardy actor, in a tender moment with Grace Scott’s Felicity in Summer Sonnets. Halina Jarosewska’s Maggie, the indispensable stage manager, looks on. Picture: John Saunders

Liam Godfrey, another of the debutants, captures the diffidence of tardy actor Graham (playing Captain Sutherland, from Anne Lister’s story) as he makes his reacquaintance with Felicity, his partner in pantomime cow, as Campbell brings another artform into play.

Emily Hansen’s Lavinia, the unflappable costume designer, and Halina Jarosewska’s Maggie, the indispensable stage manager, pop up regularly, in that quietly essential way that such theatre stalwarts do. Hansen’s delivery of Being Your Slave, What Should I Do But Tend suits Maggie perfectly.

The finale brings everyone together, Lister, Walker, et al, led by Froud’s good shepherd Rev Goode in Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True Minds, rounding out Campbell’s amusing caricature of the theatre world, celebration of love and abiding joy in Shakespeare’s sonnets.

York Shakespeare Project, Summer Sonnets, Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, until August 17, 6pm and 7.30pm nightly, plus 4.30pm on Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/summer-sonnets/. 

Tony Froud’s Reverend Goode, the “poptastic vicar and host”in Summer Sonnets, addressing the flock in the Holy Trinity churchyard. Picture: John Saunders

Coming next:

William Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 22 to 26, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

AFTER “much deliberation, and too many wonderful people auditioning”, director Tempest Wisdom has picked York Shakespeare Project’s cast for The Two Gentlemen Of Verona.

In the company will be: Jodie Fletcher; Stuart Lindsay; Jamie Williams; Nick Patrick Jones; Thomas Jennings; Lily Geering; Anna Gallon; Liz Quinlan; Lara Stafford; Wilf Tomlinson; Effie Warboys; Mark Payton; Stuart Green; Jon Cook; Charlie Spencer; Pearl Mollison; Kay Maneerot; Celeste North Finocchi and Charlie Barras.

The first night, October 22, will be a preview performance (£10).  Tickets for the rest of the week cost £15. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.