Wanderful: Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York
CHRISTMAS music and pantomimes aplenty dominate Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for December fun-filled fulfilment.
Having a ball: Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4 2026
CORONATION Street star Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother leads the cast of Tobias Turley’s Prince Charming, Bradley Judge’s Dandini and West End actress Rachel Grundy’s Cinderella in UK Productions’ Cinderella, scripted by Jon Monie.
Directed by Ellis Kerkhoven, West End drag stars Luke Attwood and Brandon Nicholson bring the mayhem in Ugly Sisters mode as Harmony and Melody Hard-Up, joined in the comedy corner by Jimmy Bryant’s Buttons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Radiant: Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
No sleep till January 4: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal
YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty.
Written once more by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced with award-winning Evolution Productions, the same team behind All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and last winter’s Aladdin. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Hooked: Jamie McKeller savours the role of Captain Hook in Rowntree Players’ The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan at the JoRo. Picture: Matt Hillier
Putting ‘Pan’ into pantomime: Rowntree Players in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday to Friday; Saturday, 2pm and 7.30pm
HEAD to the fantastical world of Neverland in Howard Ella and Gemma McDonald’s pantomime for Rowntree Players. Cling on to your seats as Hannah King’s Peter Pan and the Lost Boys do battle with Jamie McKeller’s rather nasty Captain Hook and his even nastier bunch of pirates.
Fear not as Michael Cornell’s Nanny McFlea and McDonald’s ever-eager apprentice Barkly are on hand to assist in the most ridiculous of ways. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Paul Toy: Directing York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York
Nativity play of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York, All Saints Church, North Street, York, tonight, 7.30pm
USING medieval scripts from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays and music both medieval and folk in style, Paul Toy’s community cast tells a familiar story of a marvellous birth, threaded with humour, reverence and, sadly, hatred, where candlelight emphasises the constant struggle of the light against the darkness.
The performance lasts one hour with no interval. Refreshments will be available. Box office: 033 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/york-nativity or on the door.
Kate Rusby: Winter wonderland of South Yorkshire folk carols at York Barbican
Alternative carol concert of the week: Kate Rusby, Christmas Is Merry, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7pm
BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby plays her regular festive fixture at York Barbican, returning with her folk band and the Brass Boys for two sets of jolly carols from South Yorkshire’s pubs, Christmas chart chestnuts and original winter songs.
Christmas Is Merry marks her 20th anniversary of these winter warmers, drawing on her six studio Christmas albums: 2008’s Sweet Bells, 2011’s While Mortals Sleep, 2015’s The Frost Is All Over, 2017’s Angels And Men, 2019’s Holly Head and 2023’s Light Years. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Musical director Dylan Allcock in rehearsal with cast members Emilio Encinoso-Gil and Hannah Christina for Elizabeth Godber’s Jingle All The Way at Pocklington Arts Centre
Deer duo of the week: Jingle All The Way, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow to December 23; relaxed performance on December 14, 1.30pm
FROM the team behind The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas and Jack Frost’s Christmas Wish comes Elizabeth Godber’s latest Christmas family adventure, co-directed by Jane Thornton with musical direction by Dylan Allcock.
Reindeer siblings Rex (Emilio Encinoso-Gil) and Rosie(Hannah Christina) are reluctant to start at a new school just before Christmas, especially when that school is the East Riding Reindeer Academy, home of supreme athletes. Although Rosie fits in quickly, Rex struggles to find where he belongs, but a school-wide competition might change all that. Santa has a position free on his sleigh squad; could this be Rex’s big chance? Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Setting sail in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather, second from left)and her Angels, Sophie Curry, left, Chloe Branton and Sophie Kemp. Picture: Felix Wahlberg
Getting a kick out of you musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday to December 30
DITCH York’s December chills and climb aboard the S.S. American as it sets sail in Andrew Isherwood’s all-singing, all-dancing staging of Anything Goes!, Cole Porter’s swish musical, charting the madcap antics of a motley crew leaving New York for London on a Christmas-themed steamer.
Meet nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown). Alas, Hope is engaged to fellow passenger Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Neil Foster). Enter second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell) to join Reno in trying to help Billy win the love of his life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Swinton & District Excelsior Band: Festive cheer at Milton Rooms, Malton
Afternoon of festive music and joy: Swinton & District Excelsior Band’s Christmas Spectacular, Milton Rooms, Malton, December 14, 2pm
THIS musical matinee with the Swinton & District Excelsior Band features the senior band, training band and beginners’ group, who perform a joyful mix of carols and seasonal favourites with festive cheer for all the family. A raffle and retiring collection will boost band funds. Entry is free but donations are welcome at the close. To book, go to: ticketsource.co.uk/swinton-district-excelsior-band/t-nolgkxa.
Bill Scott & Friends: In concert at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Yuletide Tales of the week: Bill Scott & Friends, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, December 17, 7.30pm
THIS Christmas celebration “in harmony with a difference” comes to Pickering for the first time as vocal quartet Bill Scott, Lesley Machen, Jan Burtenshaw & Tim Tubbs perform a seasonal programme of carols, songs, poems and readings in every mood, from sacred, secular and lyrical to comic, sad and joyous.
Whether moved by the solemn beauty of a traditional carol or lifted by a light-hearted poem, this Yuletide fusion of music and tales promises to be a magical gathering. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk/events/yuletide-tales/.
Jennie Dale’s radiant Fairy Moonbeam in York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions’ Sleeping Beauty. All pictures: Pamela Raith Photography
NOT even the cast knows what to expect in York Theatre Royal’s sixth collaboration with Evolution Productions when a button is placed under the control of Moss, the dame’s pick from the audience for affable humiliation on Monday.
An inspired pick, it turns out, with a laugh as distinctive and unusual as his name, giving more grist to the mill for Robin Simpson’s saucy, smart returnee dame to grind.
This was press night, but a press night with a difference. When would Moss press that button to release the explosive power of the confetti cannon?
The show is ticking over nicely when suddenly… Bang! Cue Kool And The Gang’s Celebration, Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora being jolted from her Sleeping Beauty slumbers and a mass outburst of cast “corpsing”.
Come Hull or high water: Jocasta Almgill’s villainous Carabosse in boastful skulduggery mode with her creepy Goth acolytes in Sleeping Beauty
Whereupon Simpson’s ever-gregarious Nurse Nellie improvises, interjects, scolds Moss and interrupts Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia as he tries to resume singing Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s aptly titled Die With A Smile once he regains his composure, only to put him off his stride again.
This is panto mayhem at its best, unpredictable, bringing out Simpson’s innate sense of capitalising on the moment. One of many reasons why his dame is the poster face for next year’s Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs – his seventh Theatre Royal dame too.
That explosion is not the only moment when Sleeping Beauty goes off piste to winning effect. Tommy Carmichael’s returning daft lad, Jangles, finds himself in a pickle, when a bed fails to rotate in the obligatory ghost scene, leaving him in view of the audience.
In tandem with Simpson’s dame, he milks this glitch to the ad-libbing max, and it would surprise no-one if this easily solved technical hitch does not become a regular part of the show. It’s how pantomimes grow and change through a run, and one of live theatre’s greatest joys. No two shows are ever the same.
Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty
It helps that Evolution Productions director Paul Hendy writes such a well structured show with the strongest of foundations to leave Simpson and Carmichael, blossoming in his second York panto, to play fast and loose when chance allows.
Mortimer joins in the fun and games too, a playful change from the conventional straight-laced princely type entrusted with soppy ballads that peaks with the best slippy-slidey slapstick slosh scene at the Theatre Royal in years. Indeed, the slapstick is an upgrade on Aladdin last year, now more than a match for Hendy’s verbal wit.
Hendy and Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, in their sixth panto partnership, place equal emphasis on story, set-piece, slapstick, spectacle and sass, respectful of tradition but thoroughly modern too.
No YTR/Evolution panto would be complete without a CBeebies star – it’s becoming a tradition in itself – and Jennie “Swashbuckle” Dale is the best yet, radiating joy, warmth and no little wit as the “fun, silly storyteller” Fairy Moonbeam. No wonder she worked with Victoria Wood, no less, in the past on What’s Larks!.
Top: Fired up! Kris Madden’s pyrotechnics in Sleeping Beauty. Bottom:The more vacuous than vicious Velociraptor called Raptor in Sleeping Beauty
She just happens to have a spectacular singing voice too – capable of going down valley, up, up, up Dale – at its best in a show-stopping sing-off with Jocasta Almgill’s “evil, stroppy and silly” Carabosse in Ugly Kid Joe’s Everything About You.
Powerful voice, physical presence, a thoroughly good sport at being panto-villainous, Almgill tops it off with a Hull accent, exaggerated just so, you kner, for comic effect. Her rendition of The Who’s Pinball Wizard with re-tooled lyrics is a belter too.
The Hendy staples are wheeled out, from the dame’s cart with pictorial placards, this year on the theme of musicals, to an animal, still not on a par with Zeus the scene-stealing Border Collie two years ago but designed to thrill dinosaur-fixated children in the form of “the vicious Velociraptor”, whose bark turned out to be worse than his bite, as it were.
Indeed, the dawdling, limb-twiddling dinosaur somewhat undermined the impact of speciality act Kris Madden’s fire artistry as Guardian of the Raptor. I’d be tempted to fire the Raptor to give Madden the unimpeded spotlight his hot stuff deserves, but that wouldn’t fit with his role!
Robin Simpson’s gaudy, gregarious dame Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty
As ever, there is as much to enjoy in Hayley Del Harrison’s punchy choreography as in Hendy’s puns in the punchlines, together with Terry Parsons, Michelle Marden and Stuart Relph’s dazzling set designs, Parsons, Amy Chamberlain and Ella Haines’s costumes and especially Michael J Batchelor and Joey’s Dame’s Creations’ ever-changing wardrobe for Simpson’s dame. The pink theme for the walkdown attire is particularly striking.
Musical director, arranger, composer and drummer Edwin Gray adds to the drama with his superb arrangements for songs that vary from Chappell Roan’s Hot To Go, for the dame, to an ensemble mash-up of Schools Out/Baggy Trousers/ABC; from two Beatles’ numbers, the opening Good Day Sunshine and Golden Slumbers, to this year’s fizziest pop anthem, Golden, from KPop Demon Hunters.
Ensemble players Alyssia Turpin, Elijah Daniel James, Sophie Flora, Chris Morgan-Shillingford, Carlotte Rose O’Sullivan and Jayden Tang play their part to the full too, bringing added oomph to songs and having fun in myriad cameos, such as Carabosse’s dungeon Goths and towering guards.
Politics pretty much misses out this year – nothing feels funny about politics right now – although a flooding joke goes down well in flood-familiar York. Sleeping Beauty is very much awake, picking up momentum as the best pantos do, with Simpson, Dale and Almgill outstanding and Moss making sure everyone keeps their wits about them.
York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions presents Sleeping Beauty until January 4 2026. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora and Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles with the ensemble cast of Chris Morgan Shellingford, back row, left, Elijah Daniel James, dance captain Alyssia Turpin, Sophia Flora, and , front row Jayden Tang, and Charlotte Rose O’Sullivan
Did you know?
NEXT winter’s York Theatre Royal & Evolution Productions co-production will be the Theatre Royals’ first-ever pantomime staging of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs. Written by Paul Hendy and starring regular dame Robin Simpson, the show will run from December 4 2026 to January 3 2027. Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Kara Tointon’s Constance in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife, adapted by Laura Wade
THE full cast is in place for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s touring production of Laura Wade’s adaptation of W Somerset Maugham’s The Constant Wife, booked into York Theatre Royal for January 26 to 31 next year.
Kara Tointon was confirmed already to lead RSC co-artistic director Tamara Harvey’s cast, playing Constance after such credits as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion in London’s West End, Dawn Swann in EastEnders from 20025 to 2009 and Rose Selfridge in the television period drama Mr Selfridge, as well as Bella Manningham in Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight at the Grand Opera House, York, in February 2017.
She also appeared in Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, Twelfth Night for the RSC and The Windsors: Endgame at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London.
Kara Tointon: Returning to the York stage in January 2026 for the first time since Gaslight at the Grand Opera House in 2027
In a further highlight, this sparkling comedy of ill manners will feature original music composed by jazz pianist Jamie Cullum.
Joining 2010 Strictly Come Dancing winner Tointon will be Jules Brown (The Shawshank Redemption, UK tour, and Ghost The Musical, International & UK tour) as Mortimer; Sara Crowe (Calendar Girls at Noel Coward Theatre, Four Weddings & A Funeral and Private Lives, Aldwych Theatre, winning Olivier Award for best supporting actress) as Mrs Culver; Tim Delap (Jane Eyre at National Theatre, Peaky Blinders) as John, and Gloria Onitiri (Hadestown in West End, A Christmas Carol at The Old Vic) as Marie-Louise.
So too will Alex Mugnaioni (The Taming Of The Shrew at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin at Harold Pinter Theatre and on tour) as Bernard; Philip Rham (Harry Potter And the Goblet Of Fire, Jane Eyre for Shared Experience, international and UK tour before West End) as Bentley, and Amy Vicary-Smith (The Duchess (Of Malfi) at Trafalgar Studios and Machinal at The Orange Tree Theatre) as Martha. Sam Flint, Jocasta King and Jane Lambert complete the company.
Kara Tointon in the poster for the RSC’s The Constant Wife
Set in 1927, The Constant Wife finds Constance as a very unhappy woman. “Nonsense,” says her mother, who insists “she eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances”.
Constance is the perfect wife and mother, and her husband is as devoted to her as he is to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend.
Written by W Somerset Maugham in 1926, The Constant Wife has been adapted by Laura Wade, the Olivier Award-winning writer of Home, I’m Darling – also directed by Harvey – and the international Emmy award-winning Disney+ television series Rivals, adapted from Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles bonkbuster novel.
Sara Crowe: Olivier Award-winning actress cast as Mrs Culver in The Constant Wife, playing York Theatre Royal on tour from January 26 to 31 2026
Harvey is joined in the production team by composer Cullum; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle; co-costume designer Cat Fuller; lighting designer Sally Ferguson; sound designer Claire Windsor and movement director Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster.
In the team too are associate director Francesca Murray-Fuentes; associate designer Angelica Rush; costume supervisor Ilona Karas; production manager Blair Halliday; company manager Mark Vince; deputy stage manager Kelly Evans; assistant stage managers Cormac O’Brien and Sasha Reece, and wardrobe supervisor Rob Bicknell. Casting is by Sarah Bird and Marc Frankum.
The Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Constant Wife is presented by Cunard and David Pugh, five-time Olivier Award and two-time Tony Award winning producer, who says: “I’m delighted to be bringing a production of such class and comedy, that evolves the wit of Somerset Maugham with the brilliance of Laura Wade, to theatres all around the country at prices that people can afford.”
Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal, January 26 to 31 2026, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Actor-directorGary Oldman and York Theatre Royal chief executive officer Paul Crewes in the auditorium when first planning Krapp’s Last Tape. Picture: Gisele Schmidt
YORK Theatre Royal has been shortlisted for Theatre of the Year in The Stage Awards 2026.
Award winners will be crowned at the Royal Opera House, London, on January 12 2026, when the Theatre Royal will be competing against fellow nominees Almeida Theatre, London, Nottingham Playhouse, Royal Court Theatre, London, Soho Theatre, London, and Watermill Theatre, Newbury.
Chief executive officer Paul Crewes says: “2025 has been such an incredible year for York Theatre Royal and we are so proud to be shortlisted for The Stage’s Theatre of the Year.
“It is the first time for us, and this recognition is a real testament to the remarkable work from the whole York Theatre Royal (YTR) staff team, as well as the talented creative, production and technical teams, performers, stage managers, practitioners, producers, collaborators, partners, funders and volunteers who have worked with us and supported us this year.”
Gary Oldman on stage at York Theatre Royal in Samuel Beckett’s monodrama Krapp’s Last Tape. Picture: Gisele Schmidt
Over the past 18 months, the YTR’s increasing focus has been on building up an ambitious programme of produced work, a strategy spearheaded by Crewes since taking up his CEO role in October 2023.
This year, award-winning actor Gary Oldman worked with York Theatre Royal on Krapp’s Last Tape, directing himself and designing the set for Samuel Beckett’s melancholic monodrama from April 14 to May 17. He would end the year with a knighthood for outstanding services to drama; producers York Theatre Royal with the award nomination.
They will be in tandem again for Krapp’s Last Tape’s transfer to the Royal Court Theatre, London, from May 8 to 30 2026 as part of the Chelsea theatre’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
Sir Gary started his professional career at York Theatre Royal in 1979-1980 and talked of completing the cycle when he made his return 45 years later. “This was an amazing opportunity for audiences, and York Theatre Royal ensured ticket prices remained accessible,” says Crewes,
Debbie Isitt’s Military Wives – The Musical: Premiered at York Theatre Royal in September. Picture: Danny With A Camera
York Theatre Royal’s revival of The Railway Children with Keighley & Worth Valley Railway for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture at Oxenhope Station
“The show was a huge success, attracted international press and welcomed people from across the world – 48 per cent of audiences surveyed were coming to the theatre for the first time and every performance sold out. ”
The world premiere of Military Wives – The Musical, written and directed by BAFTA-award winning Debbie Isitt, was another landmark production from September 10 to 27. Isitt’s musical drama told the story of the first Military Wives choir and the YTR worked closely with choirs across the country to tell their stories through marketing. Feedback found that 93 per cent of those surveyed gave the show five stars.
Crewes’s ambitious plans to expand the YTR programme of produced work will continue with upcoming spring season productions of a revival of The Secret Garden – The Musical, directed by Tony award winner and former YTR artistic director John Doyle and the world premiere of The Psychic from Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson, the writers of Ghost Stories.
More widely, the YTR aims to take its work across the UK and the globe, best exemplified by collaborating with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture to bring director Damien Cruden and York writer Mike Kenny’s Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of E Nesbit’s The Railway Children back to the tracks at Oxenhope Station on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway from July 15 to September 7.
Billy Heathwood, left, and Anthony Jardine (as Seebohm Rowntree) in this summer’s community production, His Last Report. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
Community is at the heart of the YTR too, built around a proactive creative engagement programme that reaches people from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages, from youth theatre for age five upwards through to adult acting and participation programmes.
At the epicentre this summer was the community co-production of Misha Duncan-Barry and Bridget Foreman’s His Last Report, a premiere staged with York company Riding Lights from July 19 to August 3 that highlighted the life and work of York social reformer Seebohm Rowntree.
This local story with national impact brought together 300 volunteers on and off stage, including a cast of more than 100. To ensure cost was not a barrier, YTR implemented a pay-what-you-can pricing strategy for opening night that resulted in a sold-out performance.
In 2025, York Theatre Royal secured funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation to expand community outreach activities to reach more people through the Sweet Legacies project, putting on fun, free and inclusive activities connected to the Rowntree family and legacy across the city.
Enjoying theSweet Legacies project at York Theatre Royal. Picture: James Drury
Wanderful: Coronation Street star Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York
CHRISTMAS music and pantomimes aplenty dominate Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for December fun-filled fulfilment.
Having a ball: Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, today until January 4 2026
LEEDS lad Bradley Judge’s Dandini joins the star-studded cast of Lisa George (Coronation Street) as Fairy Godmother, Tobias Turley (ITV’s Mamma Mia I Have A Dream) as Prince Charming and West End star Rachel Grundy (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legally Blonde) as Cinderella in UK Productions’ Cinderella, scripted by Jon Monie.
Directed by Ellis Kerkhoven, West End drag stars Luke Attwood and Brandon Nicholson bring the mayhem in Ugly Sisters mode as Harmony and Melody Hard-Up, joined in the comedy corner by Jimmy Bryant’s Buttons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The Marian Consort: Performing with English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble at York Early Music Christmas Festival on December 8
Festival of the week: York Early Music Christmas Festival, mainly at National Centre for Early Music, York, until December 14
HIGHLIGHTS at this Yuletide feast of music spanning the centuries, complemented by contemporary tunes, include Yorkshire Bach Choir & Yorkshire Baroque Soloists performing Hayden’s The Creation tonight and The Chiaroscuro Quartet and Consone String Quartet uniting tomorrow for Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat major Op 20.
The Marian Consort teams up with the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble in Looking Bach To Palestrina on December 8 and Fieri Consort Singers and Camerata Øresund present Christmas Cantatas by Christopher Graupner and English Tavern Songs on December 12. Among further festival performers will be mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, Dowland’s Foundry, Apollo5, Lowe Ensemble, Irish folk singer Cara Dillon and Joglaresa. For the full programme and tickets, go to: ncem.co.uk. Box office: 01904 658338.
York Theatre Royal’s pantomime cast in rehearsal for Sleeping Beauty. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
No sleep till January 4: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal
YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty.
Written once more by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced with award-winning Evolution Productions, the same team behind All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and last winter’s Aladdin. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Hannah King’s Peter Pan in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Rowntree Players’ festive visit to Neverland
Putting ‘Pan’ into pantomime: Rowntree Players in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, today, 2pm and 7.30pm, Sunday, 2pm and 6pm; December 9 to 12, 7.30pm; December 13, 2pm and 7.30pm
JOIN Wendy, John and Michael as they fly with Peter Pan to the fantastical world of Neverland in Howard Ella and Gemma McDonald’s pantomime for Rowntree Players. Cling on to your seats as Peter and the Lost Boys do battle with Jamie McKeller’s rather nasty Captain Hook and his even nastier bunch of pirates. Fear not as Nanny McFlea and her ever eager apprentice Barkly are on hand to assist in the most ridiculous of ways. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Bec Silk’s Robin Hood and writer Martin Vander Weyer’s Dame Daphne in 1812 Theatre Company’s pantomime Robin Hood’s Helmsley Adventure
Ryedale pantomime opening of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Robin Hood’s Helmsley Adventure, Helmsley Arts Centre, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; Sunday, 2.30pm; December 9 to 12, 7.30pm; December 13, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; December 14, 2.30pm
HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs company-in-residence 1812 Theatre Company in this traditional panto with a Knock Knock Joke Contest, scripted by dame Martin Vander Weyer.
Robin Hood will be rescuing the lovely Maid Marian from the wicked Sheriff of Pickering, while Black Swan landlady Dame Daphne will lead the merriment and mayhem. Knock Knock! Who’s there? Daphne! Daphne who? Daph-nitely book early to avoid disappointment on 01439 771700 or at helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Singer Dene Michael, dressed as a pineapple, in the finale to Kim Hopkins’s documentary film Still Pushing Pineapples, showing at City Screen Picturehouse on Sunday
Documentary film screening of the week; Still Pushing Pineapples (12A), City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 5pm
BLACK Lace’s Agadoo has been voted the most infuriating song of all time. What happens when you are forever associated with such a Marmite hit; what comes after fleeting fame, and what does it mean to grow old still chasing a dream?
Perennial pineapple pusher and former Yorkshire band member Dene Michael is still singing the derided party anthem across fading clubland UK: a story now told in Selby-raised filmmaker Kim Hopkins’s humorous, moving, warts’n’all documentary, a pineapple slice of working-class social realism wrapped inside a road movie and abiding love story. Dene Michael, Hopkins and producer Margareta Szabo will hold a post-show Q&A. Box office: picturehouses.com/cinema/city-screen-picturehouse.
A Nativity For York director Paul Toy
Nativity play of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York, All Saints Church, North Street, York, December 10, 7.30pm
USING medieval scripts from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays and music both medieval and folk in style, Paul Toy’s community cast tells a familiar story of a marvellous birth, threaded with humour, reverence and, sadly, hatred, where candlelight emphasises the constant struggle of the light against the darkness.
The performance lasts one hour with no interval. Refreshments will be available. Box office: 033 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/york-nativity or on the door.
Christmas will be merry for Kate Rusby at York Barbican on December 11
Carol concert of the week: Kate Rusby, Christmas Is Merry, York Barbican, December 11, 7pm
BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby plays her regular festive fixture at York Barbican, returning with her folk band and the Brass Boys for two sets of jolly carols from South Yorkshire’s pubs, Christmas chart chestnuts and original winter songs.
Christmas Is Merry marks her 20th anniversary of these winter warmers, drawing on her six Christmas studio albums: 2008’s Sweet Bells, 2011’s While Mortals Sleep, 2015’s The Frost Is All Over, 2017’s Angels And Men, 2019’s Holly Head and 2023’s Light Years. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Hyde Family Jam’s poster for their brace of Christmas jamborees at The Crescent, York on December 11 and 12
Christmas knees-up of the week: Hyde Family Jam, The Crescent, York, December 11, 7.30pm
FRIENDS! Come celebrate another Christmas with a right thorough knees-up at The Crescent with York buskers supreme Hyde Family Jam, a traditional-looking folk band that couldn’t be less traditional. They perform the songs they love from any decade, any genre, in any way they fancy, played as fast and loud as possible. “We call it ‘folk gone wrong’,” they say. “Expect a few special festive bonuses too!” Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Recommended but sold out already: Hyde Family Jam’s December 12 gig and The Howl & The Hum’s traditional special Crescent Christmas gig, led as ever by Sam Griffiths after leaving York and Leeds for London.
Setting sail in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather, front centre) and her Angels, Sophie Curry, left, Chloe Branton and Sophie Kemp. Picture: Felix Wahlberg
Getting a kick out of you musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, December 12 to 30
DITCH York’s December chills and climb aboard the S.S. American as it sets sail in Andrew Isherwood’s all-singing, all-dancing staging of Anything Goes!, Cole Porter’s swish musical, charting the madcap antics of a motley crew leaving New York for London on a Christmas-themed steamer.
Meet nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown). Alas, Hope is engaged to fellow passenger Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Neil Foster). Enter second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell) to join Reno in trying to help Billy win the love of his life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Michael Ball’s poster for his Glow UK Tour 2026, taking in Yorkshire gigs at Bradford Live (September 2), Sheffield City Hall (September 5) and Hull Connexin Live (September 6), as well as York Barbican (September 12)
Concert announcement of the week: Michael Ball, Glow UK Tour, York Barbican, September 12 2026
MUSICAL star and radio and TV presenter Michael Ball will promote his 23rd solo album, Glow, on next year’s 25-date tour. “There’s probably only one thing I enjoy more than being in the studio – writing, producing and singing songs with people I love – and that’s taking it all out on the road and performing those songs as well as all the old favourites to the audiences I love,” he says. “It’s going to be an exciting year, and I can’t wait to see you all.’’ Box office: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/michael-ball-2026/.
In Focus: The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery, York, until January 12 2025
Bowl Of Apricots, acrylic painting, by Anita Klein
PYRAMID Gallery’s Christmas Collection, in Stonegate, York, features works by London artist and printmaker Anita Klein, York ceramicist Ben Arnup, Peak District sculptor Paul Smith, South Staffordshire mosaic artist Amanda Anderson and York floral artist Lesley Birch.
Exhibiting too will be Canadian-born painter, printmaker and cartographer Mychael Barratt, Oswestry ceramicist Jacqui Atkin and Perthshire oil painter artist and printmaker Ian MacIntyre, complemented by bird and fish blown glass by Bruce Parks, bronzes by David Meredith, Nerikromi vessels by York ceramist Patricia Qua and studio jewellery for the Christmas season by 50 British makers.
Curator Terry Brett, who has owned the gallery for 31 years, has invited Anita Klein to fill the walls with 15 linocut original prints, new aquatint etchings and two paintings.
Bee Eater, ceramic vase, by Jacqui Atkin
“The gallery has enjoyed a long, unbroken relationship with Anita as a supplier of her extensive catalogue of prints that form a diary of her family life,” he says.
“Over the 28 years in which she has shown more than 800 different pictures at Pyramid Gallery, we have watched her career progress to the point where Anita has become one of the most collectable printmakers in the UK. It seems very fitting that she is the main focus of the Christmas Collection.”
As well as showing new linocut prints, Anita is selling copies of her book Out Of The Ordinary – 40 Years Of Print Making, featuring illustrations of 550 of her best-loved prints, published by Eames Fine Art.
The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery is open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, Sundays, until January 12 2026. Closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Christian Mortimer, centre, enjoying a rehearsal for York Theatre Royal’s Sleeping Beauty with pantomime dame Robin Simpson, left, and Tommy Carmichael. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
THE last addition to the principal players in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime Sleeping Beauty is Christian Mortimer, a North Yorkshire actor and singer with previous form in the annual co-production with Evolution Productions.
Replacing the now unavailable York-raised musical theatre actor Scott Goncalves at a month’s notice, Harrogate-based Christian, 29, is playing Prince Michael of Moravia.
“I had to miss my first day of rehearsals as I was flying back from Tampa, Florida, where I was performing in a celebration of Frankie Valli’s music,” he says. “I’ve seen all parts of the world in this show, and this gig in Florida came about because someone who’d seen the show then hired us for his yacht club party.
“We were out there for five days that overlapped with the start of rehearsals here. The weather was very different, 27 degrees when I’d go on my morning run!”
“Bari-tenor” Christian’s Frankie Valli travels and work as a lead vocalist for Celebrity Cruises have taken him to Japan, South East Asia, “lots of” America, the Mediterranean and the West coast of Africa. “We went quad-baking on the Namibian sand dunes and had the best time ever doing it,” he says.
Sleeping Beauty choreographer Hayley Del Harrison contacted Christian with a late call to to say, “we’re looking for a Prince”. “Hence I’m not in any of the posters,” he says. “I had to send off my show reel to Hayley and to casting, and they came back with an offer. I said ‘yes’, and it’s ideal as I’m in Yorkshire already.
“I was in the ensemble here four years ago for Cinderella, when I worked with Hayley. That was the show with Robin Simpson and Paul Hawkyard as the Ugly Sisters [Manky and Mardy] and [comedian and ventriloquist] Max Fulham as a wonderful Buttons.”
It was the second winter of Covid-19 restrictions, a challenging time for theatres and actors seeking to live up to the maxim of “the show must go on”, as Christian recalls. “I started in the ensemble, covering for the Prince [Benjamin Lafayette], who got Covid.
Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in rehearsal with Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora for York Theatre Royal’s Sleeping Beauty. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
“In the lead-up to Christmas, I had one show as the Prince with Faye Campbell as Cinderella, who got Covid, then two with Lauren Richardson, who stepped up from the ensemble to play Cinderella, but then she got Covid too, so a stand-in was brought in. But then I got Covid!
“I was off for a week’s isolation period and was in my bedroom, by myself, on Christmas Day. It was definitely interesting to have to play off so many different people with differing ways of saying things, which keeps you in the moment. That was a good lesson to learn.”
Since then, Christian has been abroad at Christmas twice, performing with The Other Guys (the Frankie Valli tribute). Now, he is back on home turf in regal mode as Prince Michael of Moravia. “He’s more of a set-up guy, driving the narrative forward, though he has a few jokes and he’s in the slosh scene, so he’s definitely good fun,” he says.
“Often the Prince is seen as being a bit wet, singing a few love songs, but this show is really well written [by Evolution Productions director Paul Hendy] to make the Prince a bit more out there and stronger.
“He has a fun number near the start, called Introducing Me, when he and Princess Aurora are getting to know each other, and he also sings Die With A Smile, the Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars song, and A Thousand Years, the Christina Perri song that we’ve changed to A Hundred Years to fit the story.”
Christian, who studied at Rossett High School, York College and ArtsEd, in London, and cut his acting teeth with York Light Youth, York Light Opera Company and Pick Me Up Theatre in York, will be spending Christmas in Harrogate. “I’m commuting from home every day, and my brother Jordan and Natalie have just had a baby girl, Mia, so we’ll be together on Christmas Day,” he says.
Looking ahead, “I’ll be moving south in February with my girlfriend, Lizzy Parker, who’s a fellow musical theatre performer. She was in Heathers: The Musical as Heather McNamara, the one who wears yellow, and then did Next To Normal in the West End at the Donmar Warehouse,” says Christian.
“We’re moving to Stevenage, where we both have connections, and we’re both in a position to buy, but have never lived together until now, so we’ll move in together and then find somewhere on the outskirts of London.”
York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present Sleeping Beauty until January 4 2026. Box office: 01904 623568 or yortktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The deep freeze: Snow goes underground in A Winter Wonderland at JORVIK Viking Centre
A FESTIVE trail, treasured exhibition and snow reboot, pantomime and A Christmas Carol spell out that winter staples aplenty are up and running, as Charles Hutchinson reports.
Time travel of the week: A Winter Adventure at JORVIK Viking Centre, York, until February 22 2026
A WINTER Adventure brings a new wintery experience to the underground York visitor attraction, where the 10th century Vikings are preparing to celebrate Yule with natural decorations hung on their houses. For the first time, visitors can peer through Bright White’s time portal into the blacksmith’s house excavated on this site in the 1970s, seeing what it would have been like to live there.
They will then board a time sleigh to travel back in time around the backstreets, transformed for winter by Wetherby set dressers EPH Creative, who have covered streets and houses in a thick blanket of snow, bathed in cold blue lighting.Pre-booking is essential for all visits to JORVIK at jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk.
Christmas at The Bar Convent. Illustration by Nick Ellwood
Activity trail of the week: Christmas At The Convent, The Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until December 22, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, last admission 4pm
DECEMBER visitors to The Bar Convent can uncover fascinating festive traditions through the centuries in a family-friendly activity trail through the exhibition that combines the convent’s history with the Advent season.
Families can enjoy finding clues, making decorations, dressing up, discovering traditions from Christmas past and much more. Look out for the traditional crib scene in the chapel. Tickets: barconvent.co.uk.
Garlands galore at An Inspired Christmas at Treasurer’s House, York. Picture: National Trust, Anthony Chappel-Ross
Festive exhibition of the week: An Inspired Christmas at Fairfax House, York, until December 21,open Saturday to Wednesday, 11am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm
TREASURER’S House has undergone a winter transformation, where stories of its past residents come to life through handcrafted decoration as rooms are re-imagined by the National Trust with festive flair, inspired by the 17th-century house’s rich history.
Each room is styled to reflect the personalities and tales of those who once called Treasurer’s House home, from last occupant Frank Green, the visionary industrialist who gifted the property to the National Trust, to the Young family, Jane Squire, Ann Eliza Morritt, Elizabeth Montague, Sarah Scott, John Goodricke and Royal visitor Queen Alexandra, wife to King Edward VII. No booking is required, with free entry for National Trust members and under-fives.
Guy Masterson’s Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, on tour at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Festive ghostly return of the week: Guy Masterson in A Christmas Carol, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today, 2pm 7.30pm
HEADING back to Theatre@41 for the fourth time, Olivier Award winner Guy Masterson presents Charles Dickens’s Christmas fable anew, bringing multiple characters to vivid life as ever, from Scrooge and Marley to the Cratchits and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come.
Be dazzled, be enchanted by a performance destined to linger long in the memory. “It’s guaranteed to get you into the Christmas Spirit – in many more ways than one,” says Masters. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Ellie Gowers: Songs exploring distance, longing and identity at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Ecological songs of the week:Ellie Gowers, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, Sunday, 8pm, doors 7.30pm
WARWICKSHIRE singer-songwriter – and Morris dancer to boot – Ellie Gowers blends contemporary acoustic sounds with the storytelling traditions of folk. Her 2022 debut album Dwelling By The Weir addressed ecological themes and her 2024 EP You The Passenger received airplay on Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie’s BBC 6Music show.
Her influences range from Mipso to Jeff Buckley is songs that explore distance, longing and identity. An extended version of the EP arrives this autumn 2025. Easingwold singer-songwriter Gary Stewart supports. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
St Agnes Fountain: Promoting new Christmas album Flakes & Flurries at NCEM, York
Folk gig of the week: Black Swan Folk Club presents St Agnes Fountain, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 1, 7.30pm
AFFECTIONATELY known as “the Aggies”, Chris While, Julie Matthews and Chris Leslie bring their Christmas cheer to the NCEM, presenting carols with a curve. They celebrate 25 years together with material from new festive album Flakes & Flurries (Fat Cat Records), old Aggie classics and a doff of the fedora to founder member David Hughes, who died in 2021. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Name of the dame: Robin Simpson will be playing Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal
Pantomime opening of the week: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, December 2 to January 4 2026
THEATRE Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael in Sleeping Beauty.
Written once more by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced with award-winning Evolution Productions, the same team behind All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and last winter’s Aladdin. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Mark Thomas in Ed Edwards’s play Ordinary Decent Criminal at York Theatre Royal Studio. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
Recommended but sold out already: Paines Plough presents Mark Thomas in Ordinary Decent Criminal, York Theatre Royal Studio, December 2 and 3, 7.30pm
MEET recovering addict Frankie, played by political comedian Mark Thomas in his second acting role for playwright Ed Edwards after England & Son in 2023. In Ordinary Decent Criminal’s tale of freedom, revolution and messy love, Frankie has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail for dealing drugs.
On his arrival, none of his fellow convicts are what they seem, but with his typewriter, activist soul and sore lack of a right hook, he somehow finds his way into their troubled hearts, and they into his. In the most unexpected of places, Frankie discovers that the revolution is not dead, only sleeping. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The Jeremiahs: Irish folk band play York for the first time on December 3. Picture: Tony Gavin
York debut craic of the week: The Jeremiahs, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 3, 7.30pm
IRISH band The Jeremiahs have travelled extensively, including playing 26 states in the USA, performing rousing new songs and tunes in the folk genre, peppered with picks from the trad folk catalogue. Lead vocalist and occasional whistle player Joe Gibney, from County Dublin, is joined by his fellow founder, Dublin guitarist James Ryan, New York-born fiddler Matt Mancuso and County Clare flautist Conor Crimmins. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
The one and only Jesca Hoop: Playing NCEMon December 4
Singer-songwriter of the week: Brudenell Presents and Please Please You present Jesca Hoop, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 4, 7.30pm
DISCOVERED by Tom Waits, invited on tour by Peter Gabriel and encouraged to relocate to the UK by Elbow’s Guy Garvey, Jesca Hoop left California for Manchester to carve out a singular path across six albums of original material. Collaborations with producers John Parish (PJ Harvey), Blake Mills (Feist), and Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers) have only sharpened the intricacy of her craft.
Now she has released Selective Memory, an unplugged reworking of 2017’s Memories Are Now, recorded live at home with bandmates Chloe Foy and Rachel Rimmer for Last Laugh Records. Box office: thecrescentyork.com/events/jesca-hoop-at-the-ncem-york/.
In Focus: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York, on tour, November 29 to December 10
A Nativity For York director Paul Toy
YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is touring A Nativity For York to Acomb, Fulford, Nether Poppleton and All Saints Church, North Street, bringing the Christmas story to York neighbourhoods from November 29 to December 10.
Directed by Paul Toy, this new and unique interpretation of the Nativity dramatises events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, presented by a community cast and production team with music in candlelight.
Using medieval scripts from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays and music both medieval and folk in style, A Nativity For York “tells a familiar story of a marvellous birth, threaded with humour, reverence and, sadly, hatred”.
The candlelight emphasises the constant struggle of the light against the darkness in Toy’s production, set in a time of threat when a homeless couple and their newborn baby are driven from home by oppressors.
“My vision is that of an underground, secret activity; clandestine performances of a play promoting banned religious doctrine in a time of oppression,” he says. “It mirrors both history and our current world situation, but it’s also a time of great hope.”
The York Mystery Plays were written in medieval times: 48 plays, once performed in the streets by the city’s Guilds, telling the Biblical story from Creation to Judgement Day, including the life of Jesus Christ.
York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is a registered charity whose group of volunteers aims to keep the story of the York Mystery Plays alive at the forefront of York’s cultural heritage.
Performances will take place at St Hilda’s Church, Tang Hall Lane, York, on November 29 at 1pm and 4pm; St Mary Bishophill Junior, York, December 2 and 4, 7.30pm; St Mary’s Church, The Village, Haxby, December 6, 1pm and 4pm, and All Saints Church, North Street, York, December 10, 7.30pm
Tickets are on sale at https://ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on 0333 666 3366. The performance lasts 60 minutes with no interval. Festive refreshments will be available.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road at Christmas at Castle Howard: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz
FROM The Wizard Of Oz wonderland at Castle Howard to daytime dancing at York Barbican, Gothic tales to Dickensian ghost stories, ’tis the season to be out and about, reports Charles Hutchinson.
Christmas transformation of the week: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Castle Howard, near York, until January 4 2026
CASTLE Howard becomes an immersive Christmas experience, dressed in set pieces, decorations, floristry, projections, lighting and sound for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, set to delight tens of thousands of visitors over seven weeks.
Created by CLW Event Design, headed up by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie, the show-stopping Emerald City High Street in the Long Gallery is the highlight of this winter’s transformation, with life-size fabricated shop fronts inspired by York’s Shambles, while the 28ft Christmas tree sparkles in the Great Hall. Leeds theatre company Imitating The Dog has provided the projections and soundscapes. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Day Fever co-founders Jonny Owen and Vicky McClure: Bringing the fun of daytime dancing to York Barbican on Saturday
Dance party of the week: Day Fever, York Barbican, Saturday, 3pm to 8pm
LAUNCHED in early 2024 by Trigger Point actress Vicky McClure, filmmaker and broadcaster Jonny Owen, Reverend & The Makers frontman Jon McClure (no relation), brother Chris McClure and Sheffield businessman James O’Hara, Day Fever has fast become a cultural sensation, built on people craving a space to let loose, laugh and dance, all before 8pm.
“It feels like a massive house party at your nan’s,” says Vicky. “No drama, no egos, just people acting daft, getting dressed up and having the best time.” No dress code, no pressure, only wall-to-wall feel-good tunes and an open invitation to dance like nobody’s watching. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Primitives: Playing The Crescent tonight
Indie gig of the week: The Primitives, The Crescent, York, Saturday, 7.30pm
COVENTRY band The Primitives emerged from the UK independent music scene in 1984 with a sound that distilled the shimmering guitar chime of The Byrds, the buzzsaw style of The Ramones and Sixties’ girl group melodies into quickfire pop gems. After debut album Lovely, breakthrough single Crash and further albums Pure and Galore, they split in 1992, only to re-form in 2009.
This year, Elefant Records released the double vinyl collection Let’s Go Round Again – Second Wave Singles & Rarities 2011-2025, adding new material to A sides, B sides and more besides from the past 14 years. Tonight they head to York with a line-up featuring original members Tracy Tracy, vocals, Paul Court guitar/vocals, and Tig Williams, drums. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Musical of the week: NE Theatre York in Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Saturday and Sunday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; November 25 to 28, 7.30pm; November 29, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
DIRECTED by Steve Tearle, this musical will take you to a world of pure imagination in Roald Dahl’s devilishly delicious tale of young golden ticket winner Charlie Bucket entering the scrumptious chocolate factory. There, he and his grandpa Joe, along with five more children, will meet the mysterious confectionary wizard Willy Wonka for an adventure like no other.
“The story of chocolate is at the very heart and history of this amazing city and it is only fitting that NE Theatre York brings Charlie And The Chocolate Factory to York,” says Steve. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Mohammed Moussa: Headlining Say Owt’s bill on Sunday at The Crescent
Poetry gig of the week: Say Owt presents Mohammed Moussa, The Crescent, York, Sunday, midday
YORK spoken-word collective Say Owt welcomes Gaza Poets Society founder, Palestinian poet and podcaster Mohammad Moussa to The Crescent. Now living in Turkey, he writes with urgency, humour and hope, seeking to build connections across borders.
Supporting Mohammed on Sunday’s bill of shared personal stories will be York-based poets Nadira Alom and Minal Sukumar. Nadira writes about mental health and her experiences as a woman and a Muslim; Minal is a writer, performance poet and doctoral researcher at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York. Box office: thcrescentyork.com.
James Swanton: Returning to York Medical Society with a brace of Charles Dickens’ ghost stories
Storyteller of the week: James Swanton presents Charles Dickens’ Ghost Stories, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, November 24 to 30,Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 7pm; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm
YORK storyteller supreme and Gothic actor James Swanton returns to York Medical Society with two of Dickens’ seasonal ghost stories: A Christmas Carol, the famous saga of Scrooge (November 25 and 28, 7pm, and November 30, 2pm and 6pm), and The Haunted Man, a neglected Gothic classic (November 24 and 27, 7pm).
“Their words unlock a world teeming with chain-rattling spectres, with dark and shadowy doubles, with Ghosts of Christmases Past and Present and Yet To Come,” he says. “These tales chill the marrow and tickle the funny bone, but always they enchant, as only the works of a master storyteller can.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Meanwhile, Robert Lloyd Parry’s performance of three M R James ghost stories, Not Truly Dead, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on November 23 (7.30pm) has sold out.
O’Hooley & Tidow: Playing NCEM
Folk gig of the week: O’Hooley & Tidow, So Long For Now, National Centre for Early Music, York, November 26, 7.30pm
AFTER 15 years of performing together, eight studio albums, four BBC Folk Award nominations, composing Gentleman Jack as the BBC/HBO drama theme tune and gigs at hundreds of UK and European venues and festivals, Yorkshire folk duo Belinda O’Hooley & Heidi Tidow have made the momentous decision to say farewell for now to explore other adventures.
To help their loving and loyal audiences process this news, they are embarking on one last tour of all their favourite venues from over the years, taking in the NCEM next Wednesday. Tickets update: Sold out. For returns only, ring 01904 658338.
Ross Noble: Geordie surrealist tapping into his Cranium Of Curiosities at the Grand Opera House, York
Comedy gig of the week: Ross Noble, Cranium Of Curiosities, Grand Opera House, York, November 26, 8pm
THE Wizard of Waffle, the Rambler Royale, the Noodlers’ Noodler is touring a tornado of tangents. “What the show will be about is anybody’s guess, but that’s all part of the fun when you look inside my Cranium of Curiosities,” says Newcastle-upon-Tyne stand-up comedian and actor Ross Noble, who cut his comedy teeth in York as the bygone Comedy Shack’s master of ceremonies at The Bonding Warehouse. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Rebecca Vaughan: Telling haunting tales of the festive season in Dafyd Productions’ Christmas Gothic at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Frailties of human nature of the week: Dafyd Productions in Christmas Gothic, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 27, 7.30pm
REGULAR York frequenters Dafyd Productions return with Christmas Gothic, an invitation to come in from the cold and enter into the Christmas spirit as a dark and spectral woman (Rebecca Vaughan) tells haunting tales of the festive season, lighting a candle to the frailties of human nature and illuminating the chilling depths of the bleak, wintry dark. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 49, from Gazette & Herald, 19/11/2025 onwards
Adrian Lillie and Charlotte Lloyd Webber, of CWL Design, standing by the 28ftChristmas tree in the Great Hall at Castle Howard, where their Wonderful Wizard Of Oz immersive experience enchants until January 4. Picture: Tom Arber
SNOW storms with clowns, Castle Howard’s immersive Wonderful Wizard Of Oz and Count Arthur Strong and Adam Z Robinson’s solo takes on A Christmas Carol put the ‘yes’ into November for Charles Hutchinson.
Christmas transformation of the week: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Castle Howard, near York, until January 4
CASTLE Howard becomes an immersive Christmas experience, dressed in set pieces, decorations, floristry, projections, lighting and sound for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, set to delight tens of thousands of visitors over a seven-week period.
Created by CLW Event Design, headed up by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie, the show-stopping Emerald City High Street in the Long Gallery is a highlight of this winter’s transformation, with life-size fabricated shop fronts inspired by York’s Shambles, while the 28ft Christmas tree sparkles in the Great Hall. Leeds theatre company Imitating The Dog has provided the projections and soundscapes. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Slava’s SnowShow: Arrival in York coincides with forecasts of snow across the North
Weather forecast of the week: Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm, today to Saturday; 2.30pm, tomorrow and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm
ENTER an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose” in Slava Polunin’s work of clown art, wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons. The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kerry Godliman: Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who has outsourced her memory to her phone in Bandwidth. Picture: Aemen Sukka, of Jiksaw
Straight-talker of the week: Kerry Godliman: Bandwidth, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm
WHILE parenting teenagers, bogged down with knicker admin and considering dealing HRT on the black market, Kerry Godliman can’t remember what was in her lost mum bag after outsourcing her memory to her phone. Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who lacks the bandwidth for any of this.
Godliman, comedian, actor, writer, podcaster and broadcaster, from Afterlife, Taskmaster and Trigger Point, builds her new stand-up show on straight-talking charm and quick wit. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
York artist Lesley Birch at work in her studio for her Flower Power exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York. Picture: Esme Mai Photography
Blooms of the week: Lesley Birch: Flower Power and Jacqui Atkin: Ceramics, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until mid-January 2026, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm
LESLEY Birch is showing 22 paintings from her Flower Power series in an exhibition that coincides with the publication of her small artbook of the same title by independent York publisher Overt Books, also featuring Esme Mai’s photographs of Lesley’s home studio and the York artist’s free-verse musings. On show too are Pottery Showdown potter Jacqui Atkin’s ceramics.
Dickens of a good show: Count Arthur Strong Is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, York Barbican, tomorrow, 8pm; Whitby Pavilion Theatre, November 23, 7.30pm; Scarborough Spa Theatre, November 27, 8pm
IN response to public pressure, doyen of light entertainment and raconteur Count Arthur Strong is extending his fond farewell with new dates aplenty for his one-man interpretation of A Christmas Carol, performing his own festive adaptation in the guise of literary great and travelling showman performer Charles Dickens. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Whitby, whitbypavilion.co.uk; Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk.
Gerard Hobson: Cut out for three days of Christmas art
Christmas exhibition of the week: Gerard Hobson, 51, Water Lane, Clifton, York, Friday and Saturday, 10am to 4pm; Sunday, 12 noon to 4pm
YORK printmaker Geard Hobson’s artwork comprises hand-coloured, limited-edition linocut prints and cut-outs focused on nature and wildlife, inspired by the countryside around where he lives in York.
As well as prints and bird, animal, tree and mushroom cut-outs, he creates anything from cards, mugs, cushions and coasters to chopping boards, lampshades, tea towels, notepads and wrapping paper. This week’s festive exhibition focuses on Christmas gifts, cards, prints and cut-outs.
Mexborough poet Ian Parks holding a copy of his new book The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light. The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse awaits on Friday
Word-and-song gathering of the week: Navigators Art presents An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Friday, 7.30pm
YORK arts collective Navigators Art plays host to An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, where Parks reads from his new collection, The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light, and will be in conversation with Crooked Spire Press publisher Tim Fellows.
Joining Parks will be award-winning York novelist and poet Janet Dean, poet and critic Matthew Paul and singer-songwriter Jane Stockdale, from York alt-folk trio White Sail. Tickets: £5 in advance at bit.ly/nav-events or £8 on the door from 7pm.
Rant: Scottish quartet of fiddle players heads for Helmsley Arts Centre
Fiddlers of the week: Rant, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
SCOTTISH chamber-folk fiddlers Rant return to the road after releasing third album Spin last year, featuring their ambitious, bold and reflective reinterpretation of influential tracks by bands and players from across the globe from their formative years.
In the line-up are Bethany Reid, from Shetland, Anna Massie and Lauren MacColl from the Highland peninsula of the Black Isle, and Gillian Frame, from Arran, whose live set reflects years of honing their sound together and their love for the music of each home region through their writing, repertoire and stories. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Adam Z Robinson: Playing Scrooge and 27 more characters in A Christmas Carol at Helmsley Arts Centre
Ryedale solo show of the week:The Book of Darkness & Light Theatre Company in A Christmas Carol, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
MARLEY was dead.. to begin with. So starts The Book of Darkness & Light Theatre Company’s ghostly staging of Charles Dickens’s festive tale, performed by Adam Z Robinson, whose solo adaptation “teases out the gothic aspects” and requires him to play 28 characters.
Join miserly misery Ebenezer Scrooge on a supernatural journey into the past, present and yet-to-come. The chilly atmosphere of Victorian London is brought to life and the spirits of Christmas return from the dead, all through the spellbinding art of storytelling that combines gripping narration with eerie recorded voices and an immersive soundscape. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Becky, left, and Rachel Unthank: Playing All Saints Church, Pocklington, this weekend
Recommended but sold out already: The Unthanks At 20, All Saints Church, Pocklington, Saturday, 7.30pm
POCKLINGTON’S Hurricane Promotions bring North Eastern folk band The Unthanks to All Saints Church as part of their 20th anniversary scaled-back, intimate series of shows in support of “today’s best small venues”.
The Unthanks play Pocklington fresh from singing sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank and pianist Adrian McNally being part of the cast of eight for the October 22 to November 2 theatre piece for Bradford UK City of Culture 2025, creating and performing the music for Javaad Alipoor’s staging of York author Fiona Mozley’s Booker Prize-shortlisted novel, Elmet.
The show poster for The Sounds Of Simon at the Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Tribute show of the week: The Sounds Of Simon, The Music of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, Old Friends, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
THE Sounds Of Simon, the UK’s longest-running tribute to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, takes a musical journey from their years as Simon and Garfunkel to the successes of their solo careers, as they explore the friendship that led to songs such as Mrs Robinson, The Sound Of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water, onwards to You Can Call Me Al, Graceland and Garfunkel’s Bright Eyes.
The show incorporates elements of the duo’s famously fractious relationship, as well as replicating their beautiful harmonies, complemented by video clips, stories and memories from more than 50 years. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Slava’s SnowShow: Bringing joy to children and drawing out the inner child in adults at Grand Opera House, York
SNOW storms and Count Arthur Strong’s Scrooge; dancing full of Momentum and Jon Ronson’s latest psychopath tests put the ‘yes’ into November for Charles Hutchinson.
Weather forecast of the week: Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, November 19 to 23, 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday; 2.30pm, Thursday and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm
ENTER an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose” in Slava Polunin’s work of clown art, wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons. The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
London City Ballet in Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition at York Theatre Royal
Dance show of the week: London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum, a new repertoire that showcases artists and works rarely seen in the UK.
Here come George Balanchine’s Haieff Divertimento; New York City Ballets artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition; Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum and Paris Opera Ballet premier danseur and emerging choreographer Florent Melac’s new work. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jason Manford’s show poster for A Manford All Seasons, returning to York Theatre Royal this weekend
Comedy gig of the week:Jason Manford in A Manford All Seasons, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
SALFORD comedian, writer, actor, singer and radio and television presenter Jason Manford makes his second York in his 2025 stand-up show. He cites Billy Connolly as his first inspiration and he cherishes such family-friendly entertainers as Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Pictish Trail: Expect psychedelic goo at Rise@Bluebird Bakery on Monday
Rising to the occasion: Blair Dunlop, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tonight, 7.30pm; Pictish Trail, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, November 17, 7pm
CHESTERFIELD folk musician, singer, songwriter, storyteller and actor Blair Dunlop performs traditional and contemporary songs from his five albums, released between 2012 and 2024, this weekend.
Known for his wildly inventive electro-acoustic pysch-pop, crafted on the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Hebrides, Pictish Trail, alias Johnny Lynch, has completed work on his new album, a sticky, shimmering swirl of sound and slime. To celebrate, he previews songs at Monday’s intimate show, performing in raw, exploratory mode, armed with acoustic guitar, sampler and his warped imagination. Expect tenderness, weirdness and generous dollops of goo. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Chris Wood: Seeking the truth in song at the NCEM
Folk gig of the week: Chris Wood, National Centre for Early Music, York, Sunday, 6.30pm
REFLECTIONS on minor league football, empty nest syndrome, learning to swim and the Gecko as a metaphor for contemporary society add up to a typically wise and soulful Chris Wood set. Tom Robinson and Squeeze’s Chris Difford are fans, while The Unthanks look to him as an influence, and he has played with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in The Imagined Village project with Billy Bragg and Eliza Carthy.
In a world of soundbites and distractions, six-time BBC Folk Awards winner Wood is a truth seeker, whose uplifting and challenging writing is permeated with love and wry intelligence as he celebrates “the sheer one-thing-after-anotherness of life”. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
King For A Day: Paying tribute to Nat King Cole at York Theatre Royal
Nostalgia of the week: King For A Day: The Nat King Cole Story, York Theatre Royal, November 17, 7.30pm
VOCALIST Atila and world-class musicians take a fresh, thoughtful and entertaining look at the life and work of Alabama pianist, singer and actor Nat King Cole, whose jazz and pop vocal styling in songs such as Nature Boy, Unforgettable and When I Fall In Love define a golden era of 20th century American music.
Cole’s most celebrated songs and stylish re-workings of his lesser-known gems are complemented by projections of rare archive images and footage, weaved together by narration. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Kerry Godliman: Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who has outsourced her memory to her phone in Bandwidth. Picture: Aemen Sukka, of Jiksaw
Straight talker of the week: Kerry Godliman: Bandwidth, York Theatre Royal, November 19, 7.30pm
WHILE parenting teenagers, bogged down with knicker admin and considering dealing HRT on the black market, Kerry Godliman can’t remember what was in her lost mum bag after outsourcing her memory to her phone. Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who lacks the bandwidth for any of this.
Godliman, comedian, actor, writer, podcaster and broadcaster, from Afterlife, Taskmaster and Trigger Point, builds her new stand-up show on straight-talking charm and quick wit. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jon Ronson: Hosting Psychopath Night at York Barbican, where he will welcome questions from the audience
Mind-bending insights of the week: Jon Ronson: Psychopath Night, York Barbican, November 18, 7.30pm
WHAT happens when a psychopath is in power? Could you learn to spot a psychopath? Are you working for a psychopath? Is there a little bit of psychopath in all of us? Sixteen years since journalist, filmmaker and author Jon Ronson embarked on The Psychopath Test, he reopens the case.
Expect exclusive anecdotes and fresh reflections in Ronson’s exploration of madness and the elusive psychopathic mind, re-booted with mystery special guests whose tales were not in the original book. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Recommended but sold out already at York Barbican: Adam Ant in Ant Music, November 19, doors 7pm.
Count Arthur Strong: Telling Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale in Charles Dickens guise at York Barbican
Dickens of a good show: Count Arthur Strong Is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, York Barbican, November 20, 8pm; Whitby Pavilion Theatre, November 23, 7.30pm; Scarborough Spa Theatre, November 27, 8pm
IN response to public pressure, doyen of light entertainment and raconteur Count Arthur Strong is extending his fond farewell with new dates aplenty for his one-man interpretation of A Christmas Carol, performing his own festive adaptation in the guise of literary great and travelling showman performer Charles Dickens. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Whitby, whitbypavilion.co.uk; Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk.
Pianist Robert Gammon
Dementia Friendly Tea Concert: Maria Marshall, Jill Shepherd and Robert Gammon, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, November 20, 2.30pm
IN a change to the advertised programme, unfortunately Billy Marshall is unable to play, prompting cellist Maria Marshall and flautist Jill Shepherd to agree at short notice to join pianist Robert Gammon for Thursday’s concert. Plans are afoot for Billy to play next year instead.
The programme includes music by Mozart, Elgar’s Salut d’Amour, the charming Liebesleid by Fritz Kreisler, an attractive Berceuse by Edward German and a lovely baroque trio sonata by Boismortier. As usual, 45 minutes of music will be followed by tea, coffee and homemade cakes in the church hall. Seating is unreserved and there is no charge although donations are welcome.
Mexboroughpoet Ian Parks holding a copy of his new book The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light
Word-and-song gathering of the week: Navigators Art presents An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, November 21, 7.30pm
YORK arts collective Navigators Art plays host to An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, where Parks reads from his new collection, The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light, and will be in conversation with Crooked Spire Press publisher Tim Fellows.
Joining Parks will be award-winning York novelist and poet Janet Dean, poet and critic Matthew Paul and singer-songwriter Jane Stockdale, from York alt-folk trio White Sail. Tickets: £5 in advance at bit.ly/nav-events or £8 on the door from 7pm.
In Focus:Lesley Birch: Flower Power and Jacqui Atkin: Ceramics, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until mid-January 2026, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm
Lesley Birch at her Flower Power exhibition opening with Pyramid Gallery owner and curator Terry Brett
YORK artist Lesley Birch is showing 22 paintings from her Flower Power series in an exhibition at Pyramid Gallery that coincides with the blooming of her small art book of the same title.
The book is published by Overt Books, the independent York publisher set up by York Creatives creator Ben Porter.
“I’ve always meant to publish an art book and never quite got around to it, but with Ben’s help, I was able to pull together this small volume,” says Lesley. “There are beautiful photographs of my home studio from Esme Mai Photography, more photos by Eloise Ross, and some of my free verse musings to accompany photographs of the paintings.
Lesley Birch in her studio. Picture: Esme Mai Photography
“There are only 50 copies available at this time. I’m thrilled to say that there is a foreword from my generous PICA Studios studio mate Mark Hearld
Lesley is sharing space at Pyramid Gallery with ceramicist Jacqui Atkin, who works with The Pottery Showdown programme. “I love the combination of my flower paintings with Jacqui’s ceramics,” she says. “They sit beautifully together and it was lovely to hear her details about making these exquisite pieces.”
Lesley’s Flower Power paintings were painted in response to abundant summer blooms in her garden and from Shambles Market in York.
Lesley Birch’s book cover for Flower Power
Sunflowers, from Lesley Birch’s Sunflower series
“I’m often keen on certain pots and vases too and I like to set up lots of bouquets here and there, playing with colour, texture and shape,” she says.
“I find myself immersed in a world of pure discovery and concentration. These works I’ve been developing for the past ten months and they’re now finally ready to go out on show.”
The Flower Power book is priced at £12 plus £3 postage and packaging. Contact Lesley via lesleybirch@icloud.com for a copy.
London City Ballet in the UK premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition
LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum on Friday and Saturday.
This new repertoire showcases artists rarely seen in the UK and is in keeping with the company’s ethos of bringing to the stage rarely performed works.
George Balanchine’s early work Haieff Divertimento was thought to be lost for 40 years after its premiere and to this day had remained unseen outside the USA until this London City Ballet season.
Alexei Ratmansky, New York City Ballet’s artist-in-residence and a leading light on the global dance scene, delivers the UK premiere of his work Pictures At An Exhibition, performed to Modest Mussorgsky’s eponymous score, set against a backdrop depicting Wassily Kandinsky’s best-known masterpieces as the dancers bring the art to life.
Unseen in the UK since its 2009 premiere, Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum is a response to Franz Liszt’s piano score of the same name. Played live, Scarlett’s affecting ballet depicts the life cycle of a relationship, its blossoming and later fracturing love.
Emerging choreographer Florent Melac, premier danseur at the Paris Opera Ballet, has created a new work for the company in fluid musical style that combines inventive transitions with intimate partnering.
Returning to the London City Ballet company for 2025 are Alejandro Virelles, Joseph Taylor, Nicholas Vavrečka, Arthur Wille, Jimin Kim and Cira Robinson.
New dancers for the 2025 season include Samuele Barzaghi (formerly Paris Opera Ballet), Yuria Isaka (former soloist at Staataballett Berlin), Sahel Flora Pascual (formerly School of American Ballet, Ballet Austin), Constance Devernay-Laurence (former principal at Scottish Ballet/TV actress), Josue Gomez (formerly Birmingham Royal Ballet), Pilar Ortega (formerly Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, Indianapolis Ballet), Siméon Sorange-Félicité (formerly Conservatoire de Paris) and Lydia Rose Hough (formerly English National Ballet School).
Last year, on its return after three decades, the company was awarded Best Independent Company at the National Dance Awards, received a UK Theatre Awards nomination for Achievement in Dance and was nominated for Dance Europe’s Critics Choice for Best Company, New Name To Watch, Best Director and Best Revival for Kenneth MacMillan’s Ballade.
London City Ballet artistic director Christopher Marney
HERE artistic director Christopher Marney discusses London City Ballet’s origins, its triumphant return in 2024 and what to expect from its new programme.
LET’S start with the history bit. “London City Ballet was formerly the resident company of Sadler’s Wells,” says Christopher. “They grew a fond and loyal audience around the country by touring to venues in towns and cities where other dance companies dared not!
“Their reach was important because they engaged new audiences with excellent quality dance and built a foundation with a wide public.”
Returning after a 30-year hiatus, London City Ballet re-emerged into a radically altered dance scene. “I noticed that many of our wonderful venues around the UK were under-served by dance,” says Christopher. “Theatres had bustling programmes of plays and musicals but little on offer to dance audiences.”
The revitalised London City Ballet sought to address that scenario: “I was keen to help facilitate this by building the model of a ballet company that was tourable whilst still providing world-class talent and repertoire on stage,” says Christopher.
London City Ballet had inspired his own career in dance, one that had taken in being principal dancer at Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company of Chicago and Central School of Ballet, London. “I would see them often as a child, so had always harboured the desire to rebuild the company and get it back on the road,” he says.
Despite this reverence for the original form, he sensed the need to reflect the world wherein we live now: “This time around, I wanted to make it adept for the times we are living in but still retaining the original ethos of bringing top-drawer choreographers’ work and international dancers to regional theatres,” he says.
The experience of reviving London City Ballet in 2024 was highly meaningful, not only for Christopher but also for the dedicated audience of English ballet: “It was a heart-warming return and we felt so welcome by the audiences around the country,” he says.
“Some were formerly avid London City Ballet followers 30 years ago, remembering what the company stood for, and many were new audience members seeing us for the first time. We opened the performance with projected images telling the story of the company’s beginnings, which set the scene well, and this was always met with great audience response.”
London City Ballet in Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum
In all, the company toured to 17 venues across three different continents in 2024, including bring the Resurgence tour to York Theatre Royal on September 6 and 7 as part of Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes’s drive to bring more dance to York.
Opening with Kenneth MacMillan’s 1972 one-act ballet Ballade, unseen in Europe for more than 50 years, Resurgence also featured Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz on its 30th anniversary, the premiere of Arielle Smith’s Five Dances and Marney’s full company work Eve, premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2022.
London City Ballet is committed to bringing dance to audiences far and wide, a subject of passion for Christopher. “I am committed to keeping the company active and introducing people to revivals of works they have not seen before,” he says.
“When we arrive in a theatre we try to provide engagement opportunities around the performance, which includes participatory workshops and opportunities for audiences to watch the dancers in their daily warm-up ballet class before the performance.”
As to what audiences should expect from the new Momentum programme, Christopher says: “A mix of classical based work with a new contemporary creation made specially for the company. We will bring a ballet by George Balanchine which has never been seen in the UK and is highly anticipated.
“It has something for all the family and is a perfect introduction to dance with bite-sized pieces that are relatable through the portrayal of the company’s wonderful dancers.”
Christopher is particularly excited to see Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At an Exhibition being brought to life in the UK for the first time as part of the mixed bill: “It is set against a backdrop of projected masterpieces by Kandinsky and the dancers onstage truly bring the art to life. It’s a spectacular work,” he says.
The company members remain of paramount importance to Christopher, who enthuses over the troupe of dancers he has assembled for this year’s tour: “Our performance is an opportunity to witness thrilling, talented dancers hailing from all over the globe, many who are new to the dance scene in the UK.
“From experienced principal dancers to emerging young UK talent, it’s a real showcase for their technical prowess and unique artistic qualities. It makes for an exciting mix.”
London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion; November 15, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: Five upwards.
London City Ballet in George Balanchine’s Haieff Divertimento, opening the Momentum programme
Christopher Marney: back story
FROM growing up watching London City Ballet in the early 1990s, the company was an early inspiration for his career as a choreographer, teacher and artistic director.
Formerly, as director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company Chicago and Central School of Ballet, London, he had the pleasure of programming tours internationally, curating and commissioning diverse programmes.
These have included the repertoire of such choreographers as George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Liam Scarlett, Frederick Ashton, Jasmin Vardimon, Matthew Bourne and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
As a dancer, Chris worked internationally for the Balletboyz, Gothenburg Ballet, Ballet Biarritz, Bern Ballet, Michael Clark Company and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, where he danced many principal roles around the world.
The Critics Circle National Dance Awards nominated him for Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance two years running as well as including him in Dance Europe’s Outstanding Male Dancer 2013 list.
Chris retired from performing in 2017 with Ivan Putrov’s Men In Motion where he danced the Faun in Nijinsky’s L’Apres Midi d’un Faun.
As a choreographer, he has created works for Ballet Black, English National Ballet’s Emerging dancer, The Four Seasons for the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, Nutcracker at the British Museum, Eve at Sadlers Wells and Lady Macbeth at the New National Theatre in Tokyo.
His London West End credits include choreography for McQueen The Play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Tell Me On A Sunday at the St James.
Named associate artist of the UK Foundation for Dance and holds a Masters degree in choreography, awarded by the University of Kent.
Remains committed to reviving less familiar but important works, shining a new light on those choreographies and providing access through extensive touring.
Re-formed London City Ballet in 2023 after 30-year hiatus, launching the first tour, Resurgence, in 2024.
