Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, circa 1829-1832, from Making Waves at York Art Gallery. Picture: courtesy of Maidstone Museum
JAPANESE prints, a Belgian detective, a Tudor queen and a West Riding pioneer are all making waves in Charles Hutchinson’s early March recommendations.
Exhibition launch of the week: Making Waves, The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print, York Art Gallery, until August 30, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
MAKING Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print presents Japanese art and culture in more than 100 striking and iconic works from renowned artists, such as Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro, among many others.
At the epicentre of this intriguing insight into the history and development of Japanese woodblock printing is the chance to see Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, one of the most recognisable and celebrated artworks in the world. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk.
Phoenix Dance Theatre in Interplay, premiering at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth
Connectivity of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay, York Theatre Royal, today, 2pm and 7.30pm
LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s world premiere tour of Interplay opens at York Theatre Royal, featuring dynamic works by Travis Knight and James Pett (Small Talk), Ed Myhill (Why Are People Clapping?!) Yusha-Marie Sorzano & Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis (Suite Release) and Willis’s Next Of Kin.
Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Death On The Nile: European premiere of Ken Ludwig’s new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Manuel Harlan
Murder mystery of the week: Fiery Angel presents Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile, Grand Opera House, York, March 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
AFTER tours of And Then There Were None and Murder On The Orient Express, Death On The Nile reunites director Lucy Bailey, writer Ken Ludwig and producers Fiery Angel for the European premiere of a new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile.
On board a luxurious cruise under the heat of the Egyptian sun, a couple’s idyllic honeymoon is cut short by a brutal murder. As secrets buried in the sands of time resurface, can Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Mark Hadfield), untangle the web of lies? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Lara Stafford’s Anne Boleyn, with the masked ladies of the Tudor court behind her, in rehearsal for Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn. Picture: Paul Hutson
Historical drama of the week: Black Treacle Theatre in Anne Boleyn, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Black Treacle Theatre presents Howard Brenton’s account of one of England’s most important and intriguing historical figures: Tudor lover, heretic, revolutionary, queen Anne Boleyn (played by Lara Stafford).
Traditionally seen as either the pawn of an ambitious family manoeuvred into the King’s bed, or as a predator manipulating her way to power, Anne – and her ghost – re-emerges in a very different light in Brenton’s epic play, premiered by Shakespeare’s Glove Theatre in 2010. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, as Anne Lister, rehearsing for Northern Ballet’s Gentleman Jack. Picture: Colleen Mair
Premiere of the week: Northern Ballet and Finnish National Opera and Ballet in Gentleman Jack, Leeds Grand Theatre, March 7 to 14, except March 8 and 9, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm matinees on March 12 and 14
THIS groundbreaking new ballet marks a trio of ‘firsts’: the first time the story of Anne Lister has been told through ballet, the first large-scale commission for Northern Ballet since 2021 and the first under artistic director Federico Bonelli.
Yorkshirewoman Anne, the “first modern lesbian”, lived, dressed and loved as she desired, not as 19th century society expected of her. Northern Ballet’s interpretation of her life is choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, leading a female artistic team that includes Sally Wainwright, writer of the BBC/HBO television series Gentleman Jack. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Obert String Quartet: Opening York Late Music’s 2026 concert programme at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate. Picture: Drew Forsyth and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (top left and bottom left)
Classical concert of the week: York Late Music, Obert String Quartet, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, March 7, 7.30pm
SALFORD’S Obert String Quartet explores themes of transformation, spirituality, and mortality in a celebration of performers and composers from the North of England, pairing Schubert’s Death And The Maiden (String Quartet No. 14 in D minor) with new miniature works written in response by Northern Composers Network members Jenny Jackson (Flex), Hayley Jenkins (Give Me Your Hand), Ben Gaunt (Skulls, Various), James Cave (Rouffignac) and James Else (Still Movement).
The first half comprises Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, curator Else’s On The Wind and Bradford-born Steve Crowther’s String Quartet No. 2. Violinist Lisa Obert, Jackson, Gaunt, Cave and Else take part in a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. Box office: latemusic.org.
Del Amitri’s Justin Currie, left, and Iain Harvie: Cherry-picking from four decades of songs at York Barbican in November
Gig announcement of the week: Del Amitri, Past To Present UK Tour 2026, November 16
GLASGOW band Del Amitri will open their 17-date Past To Present autumn tour at York Barbican, where core members Justin Currie and Iain Harvie will mark four decades of songs, stories and live shows.
The career-spanning set list will chart their early breakthroughs, classic singles such as Nothing Ever Happens, Always The Last To Know and Roll To Me, fan favourites and recording renaissance after an 18-year hiatus with 2021’s Fatal Mistakes. Box office: www.gigsandtours.com, www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.delamitri.info.
York Community Choir Festival 2026: Showcase for 43 choirs at Joseph Rowntree Theatre
In Focus:Festival of the week: York Community Choir Festival 2026, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 1 to 7
THE annual York Community Choir Festival brings together choirs of all ages to perform in a wide variety of singing styles on each bill. Across the week, 43 choirs take part in nine concerts, making the 2026 event the largest yet.
Concert programmes feature well-known classical and modern popular songs, complemented by show tunes, world music, folk song, gospel, jazz and soul. Performances start at 2.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow; 7.30pm, March 2 to 6; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, March 7.
Sunday, March 1, matinee
Stagecoach York Show Choir, Singing Communities Poppleton, Selby Youth Choir, Aviva Vivace! and The Stray Notes.
Sunday, March 1, evening
Easingwold Community Singers, Some Voices, Supersingers, Harrogate Male Voice Choir and Heworth Community Choir.
Monday, March 2
Huntington School Choirs, Tadcaster Community Choir and Community Chorus.
Tuesday, March 3
York Military Wives Choir, Jubilate, Sing Space York Musical Theatre Choir, Garrowby Singers and The Abbey Belles.
Wednesday, March 4
Elvo Choir, Sounds Fun Singers, In Harmony, Euphonics and Stamford Bridge Community Choir.
Thursday, March 5
Track 29 Ladies Close Harmony Chorus, Cantar Community Choir, York City Harmonisers, Stamford Bridge Singers and York Rock Choir.
Friday, March 6
Ryedale Voices, Eboraca, The Wellbeing Choir, Bishopthorpe Community Choir and Harmonia.
Saturday, March 7, matinee
The Leveson Centre Choir, Fairburn Singers, The Bridge Shanty Crew,The Rolling Tones and York Celebration Singers.
Saturday, March 7, evening
Pocklington Singers, Sound Fellows, Stonegate Singers, Main Street Sound and York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir.
Tickets are on sale on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk; proceeds go to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.
York Theatre Royal’s poster to announce this autumn’s production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad
YORK Theatre Royal will stage a major revival of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, under the direction of creative director Juliet Forster this autumn.
Adapted from the Canadian novelist, essayist and poet’s 2005 novella of the same name, this exuberant feminist retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey gives voice to the silenced Penelope and her chorus of maids.
Forster’s production will open on October 14, preceded by previews from October 10, and will run until October 24.
“Margaret Atwood is such a phenomenal writer – she’s clever, witty, subversive, and her insights into human dynamics are acutely well observed,” says Juliet. “The Penelopiad is a funny, moving, fast-paced visual feast, a classical tale told through a contemporary lens.
“The epic, heroic story of The Odyssey will never look the same again! I am thrilled we’ll be staging it here at York Theatre Royal, and I can’t wait to get started on the show.”
The Penelopiad premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in July 2007 in a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canada’s National Arts Centre. Now comes the first major UK revival since that production.
York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster
Atwood, author of the modern feminist classic The Handmaid’s Tale, revisits The Odyssey in a powerful, irreverent and darkly humorous retelling that unpicks one of the oldest of myths.
Immortalised as the devoted and faithful wife to the glorious Odysseus, Penelope waits 20 years for her husband to return from the Trojan War, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again. Now it is time to hear the story of those left behind.
Reimagining this ancient tale, The Penelopiad finds Penelope wandering the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her side of the story – a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge.
Adapted for the stage by Booker Prize winner Atwood and interwoven with songs, York Theatre Royal’s production will be directed by Little Women and Around The World In 80 Days-ish! director Forster in an exuberant and witty retelling that questions the version of events we think we know and exposes the truth behind the myth.
Priority booking for YTR members is under way; general sales will open on February 28 at 1pm on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Margaret Atwood: back story
HER work has been published in more than 45 countries. Her novels include The Handmaid’s Tale(recipient of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and subsequently adapted into the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning TV series); The Robber Bride; Alias Grace; The Blind Assassin (winner of the Booker prize); Cat’s Eye; The Edible Woman; Surfacing;Life Before Man; Bodily Harm; The Testaments (winner of the Booker prize) and The MaddAddam Trilogy.
Her poetry collections include Double Persephone, The Circle Game, Power Politics, Morning In The Burned House and The Door. Her essay collections include Negotiating With The Dead and Burning Questions. Her novella The Penelopiad was published in 2005 and adapted in 2007 for the stage, marking her first theatrical work.
Mark Simmons: Expertly crafted one-liners and off-the-cuff jinks with the audience at Pocklington Arts Centre
FISHING community memories, an abbey light installation and an exhibition addressing loneliness make for a diverse week ahead in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations.
One-liners of the week: Mark Simmons, Jest To Impress, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm
CANTERBURY jester Mark Simmons won Dave’s Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 with this gag: “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it”. Now he follows up his 200-date Quip Off The Mark two-year UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand tour with Jest To Impress, a new show packed with one-liners, alongside his trademark off-the-cuff jokes based on random audience suggestions.
Simmons also hosts the Jokes With Mark Simmons podcast, where he invites fellow comics, such as Gary Delaney, Sarah Millican and Milton Jones, to discuss jokes that, for whatever reason, would not work. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The poster for What The Sea Saw’s fishing stories at Helmsley Arts Centre
Rehearsed reading of the week: 1812 Theatre Company presents What The Sea Saw, Helmsley Arts Centre, Jean Kershaw Auditorium, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm
SET in Scarborough’s Bottom End and capturing the verbatim first-hand testimonies of remaining members of the fishing families, Helena Fox’s new play recounts the tragic events of the 1954 Lifeboat Disaster through the eyes of witnesses, as well as capturing the lost cultures and working practices of the coastal community, including the role of women in skeining and baiting.
Directed by Heather Findlay, the fundraising event for Scarborough RNLI features Stamford Bridge’s Big Shanty Crew’s performance of Scarborough 54. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Imitating The Dog light up Selby Abbey for three days of Selby Light 2026
Installation of the week: Selby Light 2026, Selby Abbey, tomorrow to Saturday, 6pm to 9pm
SELBY Abbey will be the setting for Homeward, Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s large-scale installation celebrating our different stories and the unified feeling of finding home, framed by the question How Did You Get Here?
Inside, the installation continues as a walk-through experience, complemented by Jazmin Morris’s Through The Liquid Crystal Display, a series of visual code illustrations inspired by Selby Abbey. The trail then extends into the town centre with works by Selby College students. Admission is free.
The 20ft Squid Blues Band: Combining 1950s’ Chicago style with 1960s’ blues explosion at Milton Rooms, Malton
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents The 20ft Squid Blues Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm
THE 20ft Squid Blues Band, from Sheffield, play upbeat, fast, irreverent blues, combining elements of the 1950s’ Chicago style with the more wayward aspects of the 1960s’ blues explosion.
They mix self-penned songs with numbers made famous by Howling Wolf and Little Walter, while throwing in artists not so obviously from the blues tradition, such as Tom Waits and Prince. Expect eye-popping harmonica, thundering bass, intricate beats and choice guitar. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Nick Doody: Topping Hilarity Bites Comedy Club line-up at Milton Rooms, Malton
Comedy bill of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, Nick Doody, Ed Purnell and Will Duggan, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
IN the first Hilarity Bites bill of 2026, Nick Doody will be joined by Ed Purnell and Will Duggan. Doody first performed as a student in the 1990s when he supported Bill Hicks at Hicks’ request, since when he has performed all over the world and written for Joan Rivers, Lenny Henry, Dame Edna Everage and Mock The Week regulars aplenty.
In a clever spin, Purnell, Ecuador’s numero uno comedian, delivers his set in Spanish with a sprinkling of English, whereupon audiences realise they can understand him without speaking his mother tongue. Duggan is a quick and witty host. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Phoenix Dance: Presenting world premiere of Interplay at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth
Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2pm, 7.30pm
LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s world premiere tour of Interplay opens at York Theatre Royal, featuring dynamic works by Travis Knight and James Pett (Small Talk), Ed Myhill (Why Are People Clapping?!) Yusha-Marie Sorzano & Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis (Suite Release) and Willis’s Next Of Kin.
Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Holly Taymar: Performing the best of Eva Cassidy’s back catalogue at Milton Rooms, Malton
Tribute gig of the week: Holly Taymar Sings Eva Cassidy, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 8pm
YORK singer-songwriter Holly Taymar turns the spotlight on Eva Cassidy, one of the most beloved voices of the 20th century. Revelling in Cassidy’s blend of folk, jazz and blues, she performs renditions of Fields Of Gold, Songbird, Over The Rainbow and Autumn Leaves.
“My show show is not an impersonation,” says Taymar. “It’s a heartfelt homage to an artist who left a lasting impact on my development as an artist and on the world of music.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Loneliness Is Not A Dirty Word: Exhibition collaboration between Hannah Turlington and local and wider community at Helmsley Arts Centre
Exhibition launch of the week: Hannah Turlington, Loneliness Is Not A Dirty Word, Helmsley Arts Centre, March 3 to May 1
LONELINESS Is Not A Dirty Word is a collaboration between artist Hannah Turlington and the local and wider community, involving sessions where participants were invited to share their own experiences of loneliness by creating pieces of visual art in a variety of mediums.
The resulting exhibition aims to create space for the viewer to consider their own narratives of loneliness and reduce the stigma associated with being lonely.
Del Amitri’s Justin Currie, left, and Iain Harvie: Cherry-picking from four decades of songs at York Barbican in November
Gig announcement of the week: Del Amitri, Past To Present UK Tour 2026, November 16
GLASGOW band Del Amitri will open their 17-date Past To Present autumn tour at York Barbican, where core members Justin Currie and Iain Harvie will mark four decades of songs, stories and live shows. Ticket will go on general sale on Friday at 9.30am at www.gigsandtours.com, www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.delamitri.info.
The career-spanning set list will chart their early breakthroughs, classic singles such as Nothing Ever Happens, Always The Last To Know and Roll To Me, fan favourites and recording renaissance after an 18-year hiatus with 2021’s Fatal Mistakes.
Child’s play: Andrew Renn, Jon Cook and Jess Murray, back row, with Mark Simmonds and Victoria Delaney in York Settlement Community Players’ Blue Remembered Hills. Picture: John Saunders
FROM Dennis Potter to Stephen Sondheim, showman P.T. Barnum to Selby Abbey’s light installation, Charles Hutchinson is spoilt for cultural choice.
Play of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Blue Remembered Hills, York Theatre Royal Studio, until February 28, 7.45pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday, plus 2pm Saturday matinees
FLEUR Hebditch, former Stephen Joseph Theatre dramaturg for a decade, makes her Settlement Players directorial debut with Dennis Potter’s stage adaptation of his 1979 BBC Play For Today drama.
Seven children are playing in the Forest of Dean countryside on a hot summer’s day in 1943. Each aged seven, they mimic and reflect the adult world at war around them, but their innocence is short lived as reality hits. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Cole Stacey’s social media posting for his Rise@Bluebird Bakery gig
Folk gig of the week: Cole Stacey, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York tonight, doors 7.30pm
VISCERAL singer-songwriter Cole Stacey weaves together British folk, 1980s’ pop, spoken word and ambient electronics, as heard on last February’s debut album with its symbiosis of “lost” places and forgotten words, stretching back to the 13th century, paired with his lyrical songwriting and field recordings.
“I’d like to invite you to come along with me on the next chapter as I head out to share Postcards From Lost Places in some unique and inspiring settings, beginning in York tonight,” says Stacey. “I loved my time and bread last year playing at Bluebird Bakery, so I’m very delighted to be invited back for an intimate gig in their fully working bakery. It’s a special setting and one I’m thoroughly looking forward to!” Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk.
Dnipro Opera in Carmen, on tour at York Barbican
Opera of the week: Dnipro Opera (Ukrainian National Opera) in Carmen, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm
THE Dnipro Opera, from Ukraine, performs Georges Bizet’s Carmen in French with English surtitles, accompanied by an orchestra numbering more than 30 musicians.
Feel the thrill of fiery passion, jealousy, and violence of 19th century Seville in Carmen’s story of the downfall of naive soldier Don José, who falls head over heels in love with seductive, free-spirited femme fatale Carmen. Whereupon he abandons his childhood sweetheart and neglects his military duties, only to lose the fickle Carmen to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Showman extraordinaire: Lee Mead’s P. T. Barnum in Barnum: The Circus Musical at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith
Touring musical of the week: Bill Kenwright Ltd in Barnum: The Circus Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 24 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
MUSICALS leading man Lee Mead plays the most challenging role of his career, stepping into P. T. Barnum’s shoes and on to the tightrope as the legendary circus showman, businessman and politician in Jonathan O’Boyle’s touring production of the Broadway musical.
Mead leads the cast of more than 20 actor-musicians (playing 150 instruments), acrobats and international circus acts as, hand in hand with wife Charity, Barnum finds his life and career twisting and turning the more he schemes and dreams his way to headier heights. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Alexandra Mather’s Anne Egerman and Jason Weightman’s Fredrick Egerman in rehearsal for Wharfemede Productions’ A Little Night Music
Sondheim show of the week: Wharfemede Productions in A Little Night Music, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
SET in turn-of-the-20th century Sweden, A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of love, desire, and regret through Stephen Sondheim’s signature blend of sophistication, humour and hauntingly beautiful music, not least the timeless Send In The Clowns.
Directed by Helen “Bells” Spencer, Wharfemede Productions’ show combines the North Yorkshire company’s hallmark attention to emotional depth, musical high quality and character-driven ensemble storytelling. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic, celebrating music from Walt Disney’s animated films at York Barbican
Movie music of the week: Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic, York Barbican, February 25, 7.30pm
THE Novello Orchestra’s Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic performance is a symphonic celebration of Disney music, animation and memories, a century in the making, under the direction of creative director Amy Tinkham, music director Giles Martin and arranger and orchestrator Ben Foster.
Favourite characters and music from across the Walt Disney Animation Studios catalogue come to life on the concert hall stage and screen in new medleys and suites on a magic carpet ride through Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Moana, Alice In Wonderland, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, Frozen, The Lion King, Fantasia, Encanto, Beauty And The Beast and more. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Homeward bound for Selby Abbey: Imitating The Dog’s large-scale installation
Installation of the week: Selby Light 2026, Selby Abbey, February 26 to 28, 6pm to 9pm
SELBY Abbey will be the setting for Homeward, Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s large-scale installation celebrating our different stories and the unified feeling of finding home, framed by the question How Did You Get Here?
Inside, the installation continues as a walk-through experience, complemented by Jazmin Morris’s Through The Liquid Crystal Display, a series of visual code illustrations inspired by Selby Abbey. The trail then extends into the town centre with works by Selby College students. Admission is free.
Phoenix Dance Theatre in Interplay: World premiere opens at York Theatre Royal next Friday and Saturday. Picture: Drew Forsyth
Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay, York Theatre Royal, February 27, 7.30pm; February 28, 2pm, 7.30pm
LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s world premiere tour of Interplay opens at York Theatre Royal next Friday and Saturday, featuring dynamic works by Travis Knight and James Pett (Small Talk), Ed Myhill (Why Are People Clapping?!), Yusha-Marie Sorzano & Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis (Suite Release) and Willis’s Next Of Kin.
Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Levellers: Levelling The Land anew at York Barbican this autumn
Gig announcement of the week: Levellers, York Barbican, October 29
BRIGHTON folk-rockers Levellers have been among Britain’s most enduring and best-loved bands for nearly 40 years, their success in part built on the anthems that comprised their platinum-selling second album Levelling The Land, whose 35th anniversary falls on October 7.
To mark the occasion, Levellers will head out on a UK and European tour from October 16 to November 21, playing many songs from that album, alongside fan favourites from their extensive catalogue. Hotly tipped Essex punk duo The Meffs will support. Box office: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/levellers-2026/.
Neil Wood’s Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks and Hope Day’s Annie in York Light Opera Company’s Annie at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
FOR Neil Wood, playing rich, paternalist 1930s’ Wall Street industrialist Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks in Annie takes him away from the dark side after such York Light Opera Company roles as the villainous Mr Bumble in Oliver!, corrupt lawyer Callaghan in Legally Blonde The Musical and, above all, the cut-throat Sweeney in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street.
For Annabel van Griethuysen, the drunken orphanage proprietor Miss Hannigan fulfils her long-held wish to play “one of my favourite characters in one of my favourite musicals”.
Both the leading adult players in the ongoing run at York Theatre Royal are working with director-choreography Martyn Knight for the last time in his swan song to York Light after 22 shows.
“We only found out at the Sunday rehearsal on January 25 when he suddenly announced it,” says Neil. “I’ve only managed six of his shows as I’m a York Light late-bloomer, but he really knows his stuff and is an amazing director. We want full houses all week to give him a fitting send-off.”
Annabel concurs: “Martyn has brought a level of expertise that I’ve not seen in any other director. He brings out the best in everyone, where he has this vision and the practical skills to bring that vision to life, such as in knowing how to move people around the set.
Annabel van Griethuysen’s Miss Hannigan with Martin Lay’s Rooster in York Light’s Annie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
“He’s going to be very sorely missed at York Light. He brings his own style, where you can tell you’re watching a Martyn Knight production because there is such professionalism to his work. He inspires you to want to work hard and you don’t want to let him down. You want to make him proud of you, and it’s such an honour to work with him.”
Annabel is performing under Martyn’s direction for the fourth time. “I made my York Light debut for him as Sarah Brown in Guys And Dolls in 2018, played Widow Corney in Oliver!, then something completely different as Aquata with blue hair and Heelys [roller shoes] in Little Mermaid, and now Miss Hannigan,” she says.
“It’s been a real journey for me. I’m pleased for Martyn that he’s decided it’s time to focus on himself, but I really hope he will still come up to York to see us because he will always be welcome.
“I’m so glad to have been able to work so closely with him on Miss Hannigan for his swan song, having come such a long way since playing Sarah Brown.”
Neil is enjoying playing the larger-than-life Oliver Warbucks, albeit hoping for better luck than he had in Legally Blonde last February. “I had to play Callahan with a broken arm: it happened just a week before we opened, so they’re wrapping me in cotton wool this time,” he says.
Neil Wood’s Professor Callahan in York Light’s Legally Blonde The Musical last February
“Warbucks is a lovely fellow, and what’s nice is that you don’t have to play to the stereotype of the bullish billionaire. Martyn lets you find your own character. It’s about finding the caring side of Warbucks, his vulnerability. For a man who is so important, so rich, and has all these people cow-towing to him, it’s orphan Annie’s humanity that catches him off-guard.
“If it were not for Grace Farrell [his personal secretary] being that solid foundation in his life, goodness knows how he would be. Myself and Sarah Craggs [playing Grace] have sat down with Martyn and Kathryn [assistant director Kathryn Addison] to settle on how their relationship should play out, as they need to be seen as real people, rather than being cartoon characters, so that you empathise with them.”
Central to his characterisation is the decision to include the rarely used Why Should I Change A Thing? “I’ve not seen it in a previous production. In fact, the only time I found a version was from a 30th anniversary recording where they included everything, but it’s a delightful song that follows Easy Street and finds Warbucks at his most vulnerable.
“It’s lovely to be able to sing it and it reflects how his philanthropic side develops the more the show progresses, how he changes from being almost frightened of children to inviting all the orphanage children to his mansion at Christmas.”
Annabel is revelling in playing the villainous Miss Hannigan. “She’s one of those roles I’ve always wanted to play,” she says. “I first fell in love with Carol Burnett’s performance [in the 1982 film adaptation], when I nearly wore out the VHS watching it again and again.
Annabel van Griethuysen’s Lithuanian vamp of a show hostess, Marlene Cabana, in York Light’s Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe
“Miss Hannigan is just such fun because she’s so horrible but so lovable in being so horrible – and I love interacting with the children so much, trying to get them to giggle at me in rehearsals.
“I definitely feel like they were scared of me at first, but as the weeks and months have gone by, that’s disappeared and they’re now giving it so much energy.
“On top of that, the songs that Miss Hannigan gets to sing are some of the best songs in musical theatre [from Little Girls to Easy Street], so it’s an absolute honour to play her.”
As for playing a drunkard, Annabel says: “I’m just method acting. What’s important is that you don’t go over the top and stumble just because she’s a chronic drinker. It’s in her physicality that her drunkenness comes out: that sense of imbalance, rather than staggering around as you don’t want her to be a caricature.
“She mustn’t become a pantomime villain, when she does have some small redeeming features, however small. When things gets tough, that’s when she reaches for the bottle, as she lurches from one emotion to another.”
On Easy Street: Chloe Jones’s Lily St Regis, left, Martin Lay’s Rooster and Annabel van Griethuysen’s Miss Hannigan in York Light’s Annie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
Her big number is Little Girls. “That’s my favourite. I’ve worked with Paul [musical director Paul Laidlaw] to really put some light and shade into it, so it’s not just a belter, but there’s some comedy in there too,” she says.
Annabel previously played an equally tyrannical loose cannon as spoof Eurovision hostess Marlene Cabana, the glamorous Lichtenstein singing star with an Alpine European accent befitting a Bond Girl of Sean Connery days, in York Light’s Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe at Theatre@41, Monkgate, last July, directed by Neil incidentally.
“What’s similar is their need for control. Marlene was guiding things and Miss Hannigan is the same,” she says. “She’s trying to control the children, trying to control the orphanage and trying to control Grace Farrell too.
“But audiences love seeing someone get their comeuppance – and right at the end she gets her full comeuppance!”
York Light Opera Company in Annie, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Harriet Wells’s Annie with Primrose’s Sandy in York Light Opera Company’s Annie at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
ANNIE is Watford-based director Martyn Knight’s swan song with York Light Opera Company after 22 shows over two decades of working with “such a wonderful theatre ‘family’”.
All that travelling north to make the Light shine brightly has been rubber-stamped by Knight being made an honorary life member, and he leaves with a sparkling account of Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan’s 1977 musical.
He knows Annie so well – this is his fifth production – but by comparison, York Light has not revisited the show since 2001 when the late titan of the York am-dram stage, Bev Jones, was at the helm as director, choreographer and conductor. “No nonsense but great,” as Gemma Kirk, one of his Annies, described him in her 2026 programme recollections, grateful for his guidance into “what it’s like in the real world of performing”.
In turn, Martyn Knight believes the greatest joy of Annie is the chance to see young talent blossom, in this case in the nine-strong Yellow Team (on press night) and Blue Team of orphans, being nurtured under the erratic, maladroit tutelage of Annabel van Griethuysen’s ever-tipsy Miss Hannigan under the shadow of the Wall Street Depression in 1933 New York City.
Martin Lay’s Rooster and Annabel van Griethuysen’s Miss Hannigan. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
Among those orphans is the precocious, wilful Annie, a role shared between Harriet Wells, so impressive as Young Alison in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Fun Home at York Medical Society last year, and Hope Day, whose stage credits list already takes in the Grand Opera House pantomime Beauty And The Beast, Opera North’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jemima Potts in York Stage’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and York Theatre Royal’s 2023 community play Sovereign.
It was all Wells that starts Wells on press night – Day’s nights would follow – as Harriet affirmed all that promise in Fun Home in a musical production on a much grander stage and scale. She looked every inch at home as much as Primrose, the four-year-old Golden Labrador, in the role of Sandy, the stray dog she befriends on the Big Apple’s impoverished streets.
Harriet’s Annie, she of the ginger hair and eternal optimism, is the show’s driving force, determined to find her long-missing parents. Her opening song may be Maybe, but she has the positivity of Definitely, not Maybe. Harriet has the nascent singing chops, the American accent, and all the indefatigable energy, reminiscent of Judy Garland’s Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz.
Director-choreographer Knight and assistant director Kathryn Addison bring out the full characterisation in Miss Hannigan’s cheeky, defiant orphans (Yellow Team members Elizabeth Reece’s Duffy, Sophie Helme’s Pepper, Perdie Rolfe’s July, Belle Sturdy-Flannery’s Tessie, Bea Wells’s Kate, Lottie Barnes’s Lizzie, Leonore Thornton’s Lilly and the particularly exuberant Emilia Cole’s Molly). Their dancing is so full of joy; their singing in It’s The Hard Knock Life a thrill rather than shrill.
Neil Wood’s Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks with Hope Day’s Annie in York Light’s Annie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
Knight’s first instinct was that Annabel van Griethuysen – who he first directed in her York Light debut in Guys And Dolls in 2018 – might be a little young for the sozzled sourpuss role of Miss Hannigan, but her audition had “Cast me” written all over it, he said.
As her programme profile states, Miss Hannigan is “one of my favourite characters in one of my favourite musicals”, and that assertion is matched by van Griethuysen’s woozy headache of a performance: that skill of ‘drunk’ acting, flask in hand, but without overplaying it, so that there is still humour, even pathos, in her villainy: at once a lush, but louche. She’s a mighty fine singer too, caustic in Little Girls, full of bravado in Easy Street.
From Mr Bumble in Oliver to Callaghan in Legally Blonde and especially cut-throat Sweeney in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, Neil Wood has put the dark into York Light shows aplenty, but here he shines as principled industrialist Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks, influential friend of the President.
Warbucks may have a house full of servants and famous paintings (latest acquisition, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa), but something is missing from a life fuelled by making money and the need to reopen his factories. Annie, the orphan he gives a home for Christmas, opens his heart with her belief that “the sun’ll come out tomorrow”.
Lottie Barnes, Sophie Helme, Belle Sturdy-Flannery and Emilia Cole from the Yellow Team’s Orphans
Wood’s partnership with Wells’s Annie is delightful – Warbucks blooms as she blossoms – while his singing is full of warmth, conviction and resonance, assertive in N.Y.C, questioning himself in Why Should I Change A Thing? and reflective in Something Was Missing.
Sarah Craggs’s unflappable Grace Farrell is ever supportive of Annie and Warbucks alike; Martin Lay’s Rooster and Chloe Jones’s Lily St Regis bring bags of wrong’un personality to grafter duo Rooster and Lily St Regis; Richard Weatherill makes a dapper radio show presenter, Bert Healy, performing Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile so perkily with Pascha Turnbull, Clare Meadley and Rhian Wells, who amuse as vintage harmony act The Boylan Sisters.
Fifty years after his York Light debut in Showboat (“when half the cast ‘blacked up’,” he recalled in conversation post-show), John Hall brings gravitas to President Roosevelt, his singing as powerful as ever. Paul Laidlaw’s orchestra enrich every number, Scenic Projects’ set design and The Loft Costumes’ costumes are colourful and smart, adding to the high quality of Knight’s fantastic finale to his York Light years.
York Light Opera Company in Annie, York Theatre Royal, resuming tomorrow until February 21, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Chloe Jones’s Lily St Regis, left, Martin Lay’s Rooster and Annabel van Griethuysen’s Miss Hannigan performing Easy Street in York Light’s Annie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
Chloe Jones’s Lily St Regis and Martin Lay’s Rooster in York Light Opera Company’s Annie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
MARTYN Knight directs York Light Opera Company for the last time in its first staging of Annie in 25 years at York Theatre Royal from tomorrow to February 21.
“It’s my swan song for York Light after 21 years,” says Martyn. “I’m nearly 70, I’m still haring up and down the country – and I’ve just finished the panto season in Eastbourne, where I’ve been the dame for 21 years [at the Devonshire Park Theatre], playing Sally Smee, Smee’s mum, in The Adventures Of Peter Pan this winter.
“You have people coming through as performers all the time, and you need to have directors coming through too. There are only so many dance numbers you can do over the years.”
To prove the point, Martyn is directing Annie for the fifth time. “That spans several years,” he says. “Until now, they’ve all been in the south, High Wycombe, Taunton, Weymouth and… the other one eludes me. York Light is the first one in the north.”
Reflecting on more than two decades at the helm of 22 York Light shows, he says: “As a company, they have brought me friendship and family, as I’ve made so many friends over the years, working with incredible people, with all the joy of giving back to amateur theatre.
“What I get out of it is amazing. I started in the amateurs, never training in dancing and singing, but got the chance in 1976 o start working as a dancer in Portugal at Casino Estoril, the biggest casino in Europe at the time.
Annabel van Griethuysen’s Miss Hannigan. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
“I was in the floor show, I was 19/20, in my ‘gap year’, and being paid to do it, then went to Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore – onwards and upwards.”
Martyn continues: “I was never excellent in the three disciplines, but I could act, sing and dance, did lots of rep things, and ultimately went into the West End in one of those shows. In around 1990, I was in panto with Hinge & Bracket, alongside these 18 and 19-year-olds, when I was in my 30s, and I remember thinking, ‘I should get a proper job’, just as my mum always suggested.”
Cue Martyn directing and choreographing shows at the Watford Palace Theatre, where he had first performed at the age of 11 “when my mum got me into theatre”. “My dad was very high up in management at Heinz, but I have always been a rebel, going against what’s expected,” he says.
Directing has brought him much joy, not least when revisiting a musical such as Annie, a heart-warming tale of hope, family, and second chances with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan, packed with such knockout songs as Tomorrow, Hard Knock Life and You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile.
“I think it’s the children’s element of the show that makes Annie so popular, the chance to see your local talent on stage. We have 18 girls, aged seven to 13, and we auditioned far more than that,” says Martyn.
Annie at the double-trouble: Hope Day, left, and Harriet Wells sharing the title role in York Light Opera Company’s Annie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
“They really have that wow factor, and to me it’s all about the next generation of young performers. That’s what I like, when you see the talent coming through.”
Harriet Wells and Hope Day will be sharing the title role in the heart-warming tale of hope, family and second chances with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan, packed with such knockout songs as Tomorrow, Hard Knock Life and You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile.
“Harriet and Hope have very different qualities and different approaches to playing the part, which I love,” says Martyn. “Harriet is very expressive; Hope was among the first ones I saw in the auditions, where you’re looking to spot someone who has star quality, and she really made me watch. She has a beautiful face.
“They’re both lovely singers and very good actresses, with demanding songs that they do so well, and though the hardest part is the dancing, they’re coming to terms with that too.”
Expect dazzling choreography, stunning costumes and a full live band in Martyn’s production, alongside a stellar cast of York talent, led by Annabel van Griethuysen as Miss Hannigan after her forgetful but unforgettable Sister Mary Amnesia in Nunsense: The Musical at Theatre@41, Monkgate, in Summer 2024 and hostess Marlene Cabana in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe at the same theatre last summer.
Sarah Craggs and Neil Wood in York Light Opera Company’s Annie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
“Annabel is someone who didn’t cross my mind…until I saw her in the audition; slightly younger than she should be for Miss Hannigan, but her performance said ‘Cast me’,” says Martyn.
“Her last lead for me, [as Sarah Brown in 2018] in Guys And Dolls, was very different, which shows she is a very diverse, powerful performer. Put her together with Martin Lay’s Rooster and Chloe Jones’s Lily St Regis, and they’re really good together.”
Martyn is as busy as ever – also working on a production of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical in Watford at present– and he is exacting in his standards. “You play to your strengths, but I also change,” he says. “As a director, I always think I could do it better, so I do alter things.”
York Light Opera Company in Annie, York Theatre Royal, February 12 to 21, 7.30pm, except February 15 and 16; February 14, 15 and 21, 2.30pm; February 19, 2pm. The February 17 show will be British Sign Language Interpreted. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Sally Ann Matthews in the role of supermarket boss Patricia in Here & Now, The Steps Musical, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Danny Kaan
MUSICALS aplenty and a posthumous debut exhibition for two York artists are among Charles Hutchinson’s choices for February fulfilment.
Comedy and Tragedy show of the week: Here & Now, The Steps Musical, Grand Opera House, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm; Wednesday & Saturday, 2.30pm; Sunday, 3pm
PRODUCED by Steps, ROYO and Pete Waterman, Here & Now weaves multiple dance-pop hits by the London group into Shaun Kitchener’s story of supermarket worker Caz and her fabulous friends dreaming of the perfect summer of love.
However, when Caz discovers her “happy ever after” is a lie, and the gang’s attempts at romance are a total tragedy, they wonder whether love will ever get a hold on their hearts? Or should they all just take a chance on a happy ending? Look out for Coronation Street star Sally Ann Matthews as supermarket boss Patricia. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Josh Woodgate’s Pilate in Inspired By Theatre’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
Boundary-pushing theatre show of the week: Inspired By Theatre in Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Inspired By Theatre’s gritty, cinematic and unapologetically powerful staging of Jesus Christ Superstar presents director Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s radical new vision of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1971 musical.
On Gi Vasey’s shifting building-block set design, part temple, part battleground, the story unfolds through visceral movement, haunting imagery and a pulsating live score, capturing Jesus’s final days as loyalties fracture, followers demand revolution and rulers fear rebellion. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Annabel van Griethuysen’s Miss Hannigan in York Light Opera Company’s Annie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
The sun’ll come out tomorrow: York Light Opera Company in Annie, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow until February 21, 7.30pm, except February 15 and 16; matinees on February 14, 15 and 21, 2.30pm; February 19, 2pm
MARTYN Knight directs York Light Opera Company for the last time in the company’s first staging of Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan’s Annie in 25 years.
This heart-warming tale of hope, family and second chances, packed with such knockout songs as Tomorrow, Hard Knock Life and You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile, stars Annabel van Griethuysen as Miss Hannigan, Neil Wood as Daddy Warbucks and Hope Day and Harriet Wells, sharing the role of Annie. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jez Lowe & The Bad Pennies: Northern English folk at Helmsley Arts Centre
Folk gig of the week: Jez Lowe & The Bad Pennies, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
JEZ Lowe & The Bad Pennies have been playing their northern English and Celtic folk and acoustic songs and tunes for more than two decades around folk festivals, clubs and concert stages, while making a dozen albums.
Touring the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Holland and Belgium, as well as Great Britain and Ireland, singer, guitarist and composer Lowe performs with fiddle player, vocalist and Badapple Theatre writer-director Kate Bramley, Northumbrian small-pipes, accordion and whistle player Andy May and fretless bassist David De La Haye. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
The poster for Al Murray’s All You Need Is Guv tour show at York Barbican
Comedy shake-up of the week: Al Murray, All You Need Is Guv, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
HEY cool cats! Hot on the heels of last year’s Guv Island tour of these green and groovy isles, The Guvnor is back with a new stand-up show for 2026. There’s no denying the world’s a mess, daddio, but here comes a glimmer of hope as the globe’s favourite pub landlord returns with his common sense hot-takes for the masses, offering a much-needed truth tonic for these whacked out and troubled times. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Fladam Theatre duo Florence Poskitt and Adam Sowter in Astro-Norma And The Cosmic Piano at Helmsley Arts Centre
Children’s show of half-term week: Fladam Theatre in Astro-Norma And The Cosmic Piano, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 2.30pm
FLADAM Theatre, the actor-musician York duo of Adam Sowter and Florence Poskitt, returns with an intergalactic musical adventure ideal for ages four to ten. Meet out-of-this-world pianist Norma, who dreams of going into space, like her heroes Mae Jemison and Neil Armstrong, but children can’t go into space, can they? Especially children with a very important piano recital coming up.
When a bizarre-looking contraption crash-lands in the garden, is it a bird? Or a plane? No and twice no, it’s a piano, but no ordinary piano. This is a cosmic piano! Maybe Norma’s dreams can come true in a 45-minute show packed with awesome aliens, rib-tickling robots, and interplanetary puns that will have children shooting for the stars. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Crime fiction author Elly Griffiths: Discussing new novel The Killing Time at Milton Rooms, Malton
Kemps Books’ literary event of the week: An Evening With Elly Griffiths, Milton Rooms, Malton, February 16, 7.30pm
ELLY Griffiths, award-winning crime fiction author of The Ruth Galloway Mysteries, The Brighton Mysteries and The Postscript Murders, discusses new novel The Killing Time and the inspirations behind her time-twisting mysteries, compelling characters and gripping storytelling. Expect lively conversation, fascinating insights and a book-signing finale. Tickets: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Jodie Comer’s lawyer Tessa in Prime Facie, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Rankin
Recommended but sold out already: Jodie Comer in Prima Facie, Grand Opera House, York, February 17 to 21, 7.30pm plus 3pm Thursday and Saturday matinees
JODIE Comer returns to her Olivier and Tony Award-winning role as lawyer Tessa in the “Something Has To Change” tour of Suzie Miller’s Prime Facie in her first appearance on a North Yorkshire stage since her professional debut in Scarborough as Ruby in the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s world premiere of Fiona Evans’s The Price Of Everything in April 2010.
Comer’s Tessa is a thoroughbred young barrister who loves to win, working her way up from working-class origins to be at the top of her game: prosecuting, cross examining and lighting up the shadows of doubt in any case. An unexpected event, however, forces her to confront the lines where the patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge. Box office for returns only: atgtickets.com/york.
Craig David: PerformingTS5 DJ set at York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend in July
Gig announcement of the week: Craig David presents TS5, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Knavesmire, York, July 24
SOUTHAMPTON singer-songwriter and DJ Craig David will complete this summer’s music line-up at York Racecourse after earlier announcements of Becky Hill’s June 27 show and Tom Grennan’s July 25 concert.
David, 44, will present his TS5 DJ set on Music Showcase Friday’s double bill of racing and old-skool anthems, from R&B to Swing Beat, Garage to Bashment, plus current House hits, when he combines his singing and MC skills. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk; no booking fees; free parking on race day.
Robin Simpson’s Sam, the emotional support dog, in Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
“I CAN’T think of anyone better to play a dog than Robin,” said York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster at Saturday night’s post-show discussion.
She is referring to West Yorkshire actor and storyteller Robin Simpson, best known in York for his six seasons as the Theatre Royal’s pantomime dame – and already confirmed for next winter’s Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs too.
Simpson’s ability to connect with audiences is “extraordinary”, said director and associate artist John R Wilkinson, an ability needed for both his panto role and now York Theatre Royal, English Touring Theatre and An Tobar and Mull Theatre’s world premiere co-production of Catherine Dyson’s one-act solo play.
In a nutshell, what links the two parts is the requirement for “direct address” to the audience. Here Simpson is playing Sam, an emotional support dog on a Year 9 school trip to a museum (unspecified but the Imperial War Museum in all but name).
Robin Simpson: Storytelling prowess in The Last Picture. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
Simpson is not dressed as a canine, nor does he walk on all fours, but his tabard bears the message “Don’t Pet Me I’m Working” and his roll-neck jumper and trousers evoke the colours of a Golden Retriever or Labrador.
This dog talks, taking the narrator’s role, while evoking the school head of history and a particularly sensitive schoolboy, and taking the audience by the hand as he invites us to imagine being in a theatre in 2026,then the group of school children, on the bus trip and in the museum, and most hauntingly, the victims of the Nazi Holocaust in each Second World War picture.
Writer Dyson decreed only a few stage instructions, the most significant being that the pictures being described by Sam should never be shown. Instead, the images should be formed in our imagination – one of theatre’s most powerful tools – but such is the impact of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), the children’s exodus from Poland, the Jewish ghettos and the concentration camps that, when combined with Dyson’s descriptions and Simpson’s storytelling prowess, we readily draw on imagery from history books, films and documentaries.
Dyson’s structure is methodical, building momentum all the while. A head count is taken as regularly as Simpson’s Sam asks us how we are feeling after each picture. Simpson’s narrator explains how Sam can sense our emotions, our distress, without having the capacity to understand the play’s greater question: Why?
Director John R Wilkinson in rehearsal with actor Robin Simpson for the world premiere of The Last Picture
Gradually, we see teacher, breakaway 13-year-old pupil and dog all break down in reaction to what they are encountering, all conveyed so expressively by Simpson.
We learn too of other children’s reactions: wanting to know when lunch will be; wondering why something that happened so long ago in a different country should matter to them as they head from room to room, one marked Escalation, Deportation, Final Solution. They reach for the mobile phones at the earliest opportunity to flick through the latest posts.
Interestingly, contrary to myth, dogs do see in colour, but not in the same way we see colour, and here Wilkinson and set designer Natasha Jenkins complement Dyson’s descriptions of colour used by Sam to sum up the mood of each scene.
The back wall is covered with a plain cloth (an aid for us to build up a picture); the flooring has a metallic black sheen, framed by Isle of Skye lighting designer Benny Goodman’s strip lighting that changes from white to yellow. When the cloth drops suddenly, the stage is bathed in fiery orange.
Natasha Jenkins’s set design for York Theatre Royal’s production of The Last Picture. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
The minimalism stretches to the props: one table to the side, with a water bottle marked Sam (for Simpson’s vocal lubrication) and five lecture hall/school room chairs that Simpson uses in differing ways, most disturbingly to portray dead children when lain on their side.
Every detail has been thought through to the max, honed in four weeks of rehearsals, a research visit to Holocaust Centre North in Huddersfield, and in Wilkinson’s bond with Dyson over the power of abstract, non-literal theatre and European drama, as well as in Simpson’s remarkably adroit performance.
The Last Picture had begun life as one of 37 new plays picked from 2,000 entries to mark the500th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio in 2023 with a national playwriting initiative, when Wilkinson directed a rehearsed reading at York Theatre Royal and saw its potential for a full-scale production.
Robin Simpson’s Sam in a rueful moment in The Last Picture. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
This is that production, the full picture of The Last Picture, and what a fitting, moving first show for the Theatre Royal to make for the Studio space since the accursed Covid pandemic.
Add Max Pappenheim’s sound design, a devastating use of Mendelssohn’s music – deemed “degenerate” by the Nazis – and movement direction full of circular rhythm by Alexia Kalogiannidis, and Dyson’s play is unique, wholly original, thoroughly theatrical.
The Last Picture is unmissable, unforgettable, urgently needed theatre at its best.
The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, until February 14, 7.45pm plus 2pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees, then on tour. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.The tour will visit HOME Manchester, February 18 to 21; Bristol Old Vic, February 24 to 28; Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, March 5 to 7; Mull Theatre, March 11 and 12; Bunessan Village Hall, March 13; Iona Village Hall, March 14.
Robin Simpson in The Last Picture at York Theatre Royal Studio, Picture: S R Taylor Photography
MUSICALS aplenty and a posthumous debut exhibition for two York artists are among Charles Hutchinson’s favourites for February fulfilment.
Solo show of the week: The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, until February 14, 7.45pm except Sunday, plus Wednesday and Saturday 2pm matinees
ROBIN Simpson follows up his sixth season as York Theatre Royal’s pantomime dame by playing a dog in York Theatre Royal, ETT and An Tobar and Mull Theatre’s premiere of Catherine Dyson’s anti-Fascist monodrama The Last Picture, directed by associate artist John R Wilkinson.
Imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school museum trip, and then as a citizen of Europe in 1939 as history takes its darkest turn. While you imagine, emotional support dog Sam (Simpson’s character) will be by your side in a play about empathy – its power and limits and what it asks of us – built around a story of our shared past, present and the choices we face today. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Colour & Light turns the spotlight on Viking invader Eric Bloodaxe among York’s rogues, scoundrels and historical figures in Double Take Productions’ light installation at York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower. Picture: David Harrison
Illumination of the week: Colour & Light, York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower, York, until February 22, 6pm to 9pm
YORK BID is bringing Colour & Light back for 2026 on its biggest ever canvas. For the first time, two of York’s landmark buildings are illuminated together when York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower become the combined canvas for Double Take Projections’ fully choreographed projection show, transforming the Eye of York.
Presented in partnership with York Museums Trust and English Heritage, the continuous, looped, ten-minute show bring York’s historic rogues, scoundrels, miscreants, mischief makers and mythical characters to life in a family-friendly projection open to all for free; no ticket required.
Suede: Showcasing Antidepressants album on York Barbican return
Recommended but sold out already: Suede, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
AFTER playing York Barbican for the first time in more than 25 years in March 2023, Suede make a rather hastier return on their 17-date Antidepressants UK Tour when Brett Anderson’s London band promote their tenth studio album.
“If [2022’s] Autofiction was our punk record, Antidepressants is our post-punk record,” says Anderson. “It’s about the tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis. We are all striving for connection in a disconnected world. This was the feel I wanted the songs to have. This is broken music for broken people.” Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Sara Pascoe: Contemplating smart and astute nocturnal thoughts in I Am A Strange Gloop
Comedy gig of the week: Sara Pascoe, I Am A Strange Gloop, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm
HAVE you ever been awake in the middle of the night and thought something so smart and astute that you could not wait for the world to wake up for you to tell them? “This show is that thought, in that it doesn’t make much sense and is a bit weird on reflection,” says Dagenham comedian, actress, presenter and writer Sara Pascoe.
In I Am A Strange Gloop, Sara & Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club podcaster and former The Great British Sewing Bee host Pascoe reveals how her children don’t sleep, her kitchen won’t clean itself and her husband “doesn’t want to be in it”. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Sally Ann Matthews’ supermarket boss Patricia in Here & Now The Steps Musical. Picture: Danny Kaan
Comedy and Tragedy show of the week: Here & Now, The Steps Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 10 to 15, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; Wednesday and Saturday, 2.30pm; Sunday, 3pm
PRODUCED by Steps, ROYO and Pete Waterman, Here & Now weaves multiple dance-pop hits by the London group into Shaun Kitchener’s story of supermarket worker Caz and her fabulous friends dreaming of the perfect summer of love.
However, when Caz discovers her “happy ever after” is a lie, and the gang’s attempts at romance are a total tragedy, they wonder whether love will ever get a hold on their hearts? Or should they all just take a chance on a happy ending? Look out for Coronation Street star Sally Ann Matthews as supermarket boss Patricia. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Gi Vasey’s Annas and Joseph Hayes’ Caiaphas in Inspired By Theatre’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
Boundary-pushing theatre show of the week: Inspired By Theatre in Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 11 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Inspired By Theatre’s gritty, cinematic and unapologetically powerful staging of Jesus Christ Superstar presents director Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s radical new vision of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1971 musical.
On Gi Vasey’s shifting building-block set design, part temple, part battleground, the story unfolds through visceral movement, haunting imagery and a pulsating live score, capturing Jesus’s final days as loyalties fracture, followers demand revolution and rulers fear rebellion. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Annie at the double: Hope Day, left, and Harriet Wells will be sharing the title role in York Light Opera Company’s musical. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
The sun’ll come out, not tomorrow, but from Thursday at: Annie, York Light Opera Company, York Theatre Royal, until February 21, 7.30pm, except February 15 and 16; matinees on February 14, 15 and 21, 2.30pm; February 19, 2pm
MARTYN Knight directs York Light Opera Company for the last time in the company’s first staging of Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan’s Annie in 25 years.
This heart-warming tale of hope, family, and second chances, packed with such knockout songs as Tomorrow, Hard Knock Life and You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile, stars Annabel van Griethuysen as Miss Hannigan, Neil Wood as Daddy Warbucks and Hope Day and Harriet Wells, sharing the role of Annie. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Liz Foster: Exploring memory, landscape and the childhood feeling of being immersed in wild places in Deep Among The Grasses
Exhibition launch of the week: Liz Foster, Deep Among The Grasses, Rise:@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, February 12 to April 10
YORK artist Liz Foster’s new series of abstract paintings, Deep Among The Grasses, invites you into rich, expansive imagined spaces where she explores memory, landscape and the childhood feeling of being immersed in wild places.
Full of colour, feeling and atmosphere, this body of work is being shown together for the first time. Everyone is welcome at the 6pm to 9pm preview on February 12 when Leeds-born painter, teacher and mentor Liz will be in attendance.
Craig David: Performing his TS5 DJ set at York Racecourse Music Showcase weekend
Gig announcement of the week: Craig David presents TS5, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Knavesmire, York, July 24
SOUTHAMPTON singer-songwriter and DJ Craig David will complete this summer’s music line-up at York Racecourse after earlier announcements of Becky Hill’s June 27 show and Tom Grennan’s July 25 concert.
David, 44, will present his TS5 DJ set on Music Showcase Friday’s double bill of racing and old-skool anthems, from R&B to Swing Beat, Garage to Bashment , plus current House hits, when he combines his singing and MC skills. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk; no booking fees; free parking on race day.
Ice amid the January rain: York Ice Trail 2026
Festival of the week: Make It York presents York Ice Trail, An Enchanted City, York city centre, today and tomorrow, 10.30am to 4pm
THE streets of York will be transformed into An Enchanted City, where a spell has been cast, as ice sculptures, alive with enchantment, appear across the city’s cobbled and narrow streets.
Created by Icebox, 36 sculptures inspired by magic, mystery, the weird and wonderful will make an extraordinary trail, but who cast the spell and why? Follow the trail to uncover the truth. Pick up a trail map from the Visit York Visitor Information Centre to tick off all the sculptures; collect a special sticker on completion.
The sculptures will be: Ice Ice Baby (neon photo opportunity), provided by Make It York; Igloo 360 Photobooth, Party Octopus; The Ice Village (curated market); All Aboard for Railway Stories, National Railway Museum; Bertie the Shambles Dragon, Shambles Market Traders; The Wizard of Ouse!, City Cruises York and Mr Chippy; The Enchanted Chocolate Bar, York’s Chocolate Story.
Drake’s Spellbound Catch, provided by Drake’s Fish and Chips; Sword in the Stone, York BID; The Yorkshire Rose by Kay Bradley, Bradley’s Jewellers; Saint William’s Poisoned Chalice, York Minster; Toadstool House, York BID; York Park & Brrr-ide, First Bus; Wizard Teddy Bear, Stonegate Teddy Bears; Bettys Bern Bears, Bettys; The Magic of Connection, Grand Central Rail.
Lord of the Lodging, provided by The Judge’s Lodging; The Ice Wall (photo opportunity), Make It York; Spellbound Train Ticket, The Milner York; From Grand Roots, Magic Blooms, The Grand, York; Hobgoblin, York BID; Enchanted, Icebox; Wade The Giant, North York Moors National Park; Let It Sew, Gillies Fabrics; The Hungry Dragon, Ate O’clock; Barghest, York BID.
The Prophet Hen, provided by SPARK: York; Jack Frost, York BID; Wings of Ice, Merchant Adventurers’ Hall; Magic Mixie Monster, York Mix; Mjolnir – The Bringer of Lightning, Murton Park; Beaky Blinder the Puffin, RSPB; Food and Drink Area; Ice Masterclass (paid experience); The Snow Block (photo opportunity), Make It York, and Live Ice Carving (from 12 noon each day).
In Focus: Navigators Art performance & exhibition, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 5pm
Penesthilia, by Penny Marrows
TO mark the opening of Penny Marrows and J P Warriner’s posthumous exhibition at City Screen Pictiurehouse, Penny and artist Timothy Morrison’s son, London jazz guitarist Billy Marrows, performs tomorrow with Portuguese Young Musician of the Year 2025 Teresa Macedo Ferreira, supported by lutenist Simon Nesbitt. Admission is free.
The exhibition launch follows at 6pm, celebrating two late York artists whose paintings were never exhibited in their lifetimes.
Born in 1951, Penny grew up in Tockwith, west of York, and attended Mill Mount Grammar School for Girls before studying 2D and 3D art at York College, training as a sculptor, then taught art in prisons and adult education in London.
On returning to Yorkshire, she painted and drew trees, landscapes and portraits for 30 years, including her self-portrait as an heroic winged figure.
Her exhibition is curated by husband Timothy Morrison, York artist and teacher, who says: “I met her in a printmaking evening class in Brixton, where Penny made linocuts and engravings of alarmingly aggressive-looking mythical beasts.
“Billy came along…and as a teenager fell in love with the guitar and jazz, and went on to study at Royal Academy of Music.
“Fast forward to early 2023 when Penny was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Billy started sending little video recordings of his music to cheer her up (and me). New compositions, and duets with Teresa [Macedo Ferreira].
Penny Marrows in her garden
“The Beech Tree had its premiere at Penny’s funeral, and some of these pieces became Billy’s first album, Penelope, released soon after in her memory. So far it’s raised almost £7,000 for World Child Cancer.”
In 2025, Penelope was shortlisted in the category of Best New Album in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. “Penny doesn’t know about all this, nor that thanks to Billy’s music her paintings have had an extraordinary resurrection.
“The trauma of the illness, combined with major retro-refit work in the house, meant that the paintings were buried in the chaos. We found them at the back of a huge pile. First exhibited at the funeral, they’ve since gone round the world beautifully emblazoned on Billy’s album covers.”
Penny loved trees, especially walking through woods. “The paintings seemed to burst from nowhere at the time, almost with a secretive devil-may-care diffidence, but are actually distillations of detailed observational sketchbook drawings done in the Howardian Hills while we collected wood for our stove,” says Timothy.
“Her early notebooks tenderly catch details of family life in Tockwith with an almost Bonnard-like natural draughtsmanship. My garden is a beautiful sculpture garden.
“If Penny is anywhere, she’s in the trees, both in the paintings and out there. Her work inspires my own drawings; I think of her as Daphne and I often depict her as a bird perched humorously and enquiringly on her very own branch.
“I would like to thank Richard Kitchen, who greatly encouraged me to curate this show of Penny’s work, and for making it possible.”
J P Warriner’s work Untitled, featuring in Navigators Art’s exhibition
BORN in Ireland in 1935, J P (John)Warriner lived most of his life in York, where he died in 2019 aged 84. “He has no surviving family or partner,” says Navigators Art’s Richard Kitchen. “Research indicates he was a brilliant and kind man, and a grandfather figure to troubled local youth.”
John was a contemporary figurative painter whose style spanned surrealism, post pop, erotic and neo-mythic genres. Married to Effie, the couple had two children, Ronald and Nigel, who both died tragically young.
“John seemed to have taken to painting to heal from the losses he and Effie endured,” says his exhibition curator, Cath Dickinson, of Notions Vintage. “He remains somewhat of an enigma, with little recorded about his life or artistic endeavours.
“We know that he was a retired Nestle employee, living in Acomb, suspected to have hailed from Omagh, County Tyrone. With no social media or websites to dissect, no records of known influences or potential drivers, the journey of discovery about JP is just beginning.”
Local accounts reveal that he was a much loved go-to grandfather figure to all the children in his street in Foxwood, Acomb, never missing a birthday or Christmas, delivering shortbread and fixing many broken bikes.
In a strange encounter, curator Cath Dickinson, who has been collecting paintings by John for five years, met someone who knew a friend and neighbour of John by chance.
“I discovered that John had been more than a friendly neighbour but amentor to troubled local adolescents and young people who were struggling with the temptations of life in the hedonistic 1990s and 2000s,” says Cath.
Artist J P Warriner with “our Amy”
“John had a particularly close friend, mentee and muse in ‘Our Amy’, a wonderful young mum who was full of life, and had a fantastic sense of humour. John became Amy’s mentor and confidante and tried to not only guide but also record many of the pivotal moments in her tragically shortened life.”
Exhibition visitors hopefully will be able to discover and share more of the history of John’s painting and subjects. “The main part is in tribute and memory to Amy and John and their bond which transcended generations and societal norms,” says Cath. “John’s works have been likened to Alasdair Gray and Grayson Perry. They span decades and observe war, tragedy, comedy, temptation, love and loss.
After the exhibition in memory of John, Effie and Amy ends on March 6, some of John’s works will be available to buy from notionsvintageyork.com at 6 Aldwark Mews, York, YO1 7PJ.
“This joint exhibition has been both a labour of love and a voyage of discovery for its two curators,” says Richard. “Come and discover the work of two wonderful creative artists and their vibrant contrasting styles and subject matter.”
Penny Marrows & J P Warriner, City Screen Picturehouse, York, on show until March 6, open daily from 10.30am until closing time.
Did you know?
BILLY Marrows also played at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, on February 5 with Di-Cysgodion, a contemporary jazz quartet making waves in the capital and touring the north following their appearance at London’s Vortex Jazz Club.
Billy will return to The Basement with the Billy Marrows Band on March 26 in a 7.30pm concert promoted by Jazztones at 7.30pm. Tickets: TicketSource booking at bit.ly/nav-events.
The quartet brings together exciting London jazz scene improvisers to present York-born Billy’s boundary-pushing compositions, where they explore the relationship between improvisation and composition, incorporating grooves from across the globe and taking inspiration from many genres, including contemporary jazz, funk, progressive jazz and classical.
Penny Marrows’ artwork for Billy Marrows’ album Penelope, which received a four-star review in Jazzwise
Joining Billy, electric guitar and compositions, will be Chris Williams, alto sax (Led Bib, Sarathy Korwar, Grande Familia, Let Spin), Huw V Williams, double bass (Gruff Rhys, Ivo Neame, Chris Batchelor, Di-Cysgodion) and Jay Davis, drums (Mark Lockheart, Eddie Parker, Elliot Galvin, Di-Cysgodion).
Their debut album, Dancing On Bentwood Chairs, will be released on February 13, and this concert forms part of the accompanying tour,
Billy, who grew up in Sheriff Hutton, near York, studied jazz guitar at the Royal Academy of Music. He also leads the chamber-jazz project Grande Família, whose appearances have taken in top British venues, Scarborough Jazz Festival and a sold-out residency at Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho.
In addition, Billy performs with Docklands Sinfonia, Tom Ridout Quintet, Chelsea Carmichael, Patchwork Jazz Orchestra and Di-Cysgodion. For more details, go to: billymarrows.com.
