Tag: York Theatre Royal Studio

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when taking Steps to entertainment. Hutch’s List No 5, from The York Press

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.

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.

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.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 5, from Gazette & Herald

Two into one won’t go: Lisa Faulkner’s Allie, left, and Kym Marsh’s Hedy in Single White Female. Picture: Chris Bishop

AN update of a Nineties’ psychological thriller and a panto dame’s transformation into a dog top Charles Hutchinson’s  cultural picks for early February and beyond.

World premiere tour of the week: Single White Female, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees today and Saturday

SCREEN actress, 2010 Celebrity MasterChef winner, TV presenter, chef and cookery book author Lisa Faulkner returns to the stage for the first time in 21 years in Rebecca Reid’s darkly humorous stage adaptation of psychological thriller Single White Female, now updated to the social-media age.

Faulkner’s recently divorced mum Allie is balancing being a single parent with the launch of her tech start-up. When she decides to advertise for a lodger to help make ends meet, Kym Marsh’s Hedy offers her a lifeline, but as their lives intertwine, boundaries blur and a seemingly perfect arrangement begins to unravel with chilling consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Viking illumination: Colour & Light celebrates Eric Bloodaxe at York Castle Museum. Picture: David Harrison

Illumination launch of the week: Colour & Light, York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower, York, today to 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 will be illuminated together when York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower become the combined canvas for a 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 will bring York’s historic characters to life in a family-friendly projection open to all for free; no ticket required.

Matt Tapp’s ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok and Helen Gallagher’s ‘Calamity’ Jane in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Calamity Jane

Musical of the week: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Calamity Jane, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

HELEN Gallagher’s tough talkin’, gun-totin’ heroine ‘Calamity’ Jane and Matt Tapp’s former peace-officer ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok lead director Sophie Cooke’s cast for Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster’s musical Calamity James.

Deadwood’s citizens are content with their ways of life: supporting their fort of soldiers and socialising at the beloved Golden Garter saloon. However, when a new face blows in from the Windy City to create a stir, friendships will be formed, long-time loyalties tested and perhaps even secret love revealed. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Alexander Flanagan Wright in Wright & Grainger’s Helios at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Ancient & modern drama of the week: Wright & Grainger in Helios, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

EASINGWOLD theatre-makers Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger begin their new partnership with Theatre@41 by re-visiting Helios, wherein a lad lives half way up a historic hill, a teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car and a boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky.

In Wright’s story of the sun god’s son, Helios transplants the Ancient Greek tale into a modern-day myth wound around the winding roads of rural England and into the everyday living of a towering city. “It’s a story about life, the invisible monuments we build to it, and the little things that leave big marks,” he says. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Robin Simpson in rehearsal for Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture, premiering at York Theatre Royal Studio

Solo show of the week: The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow to February 14, except February 8, 7.45pm, 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 The Last Picture, directed by John R Wilkinson.

Imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school 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.

Simeon Walker: Inviting his audience to gather around the piano at Helmsley Arts Centre

Pianist of the week: Simeon Walker, An Evening Around The Piano, Helmlsey Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

LEEDS modern classical pianist and composer Simeon Walker performs in Great Britain and Europe, while notching 50 million streams across online platforms and having his music played on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM.

Walker, who has a keen interest in jazz, folk and ambient music too, has collaborated on interdisciplinary work with artist Mary Griffiths, Portuguese choreographer Sara Afonso, writer Emma White and filmmakers Will Killen and Ben Cohen, plus BBC Radio 4 and University of Leeds. His concerts span moments of quiet, gentle solitude to boisterous, flowing exuberance. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Julie Carter: Addressing themes of feminism, land rights, ageism and ableism, history and literature in The Dreamtime Fellrunner

Wellbeing on the run: Julie Carter, The Dreamtime Fellrunner, Milton Rooms, Malton, February 12, 7.30pm

IN her first theatre show, poetry and creative non-fiction author Julie Carter charts her running exploits on the Lakeland fells in this moving and humorous account of being an athlete with a physical disability in the form of a developmental disease of the spine.

Presenting fell running as a type of land art and spiritual practice, Carter emphasises body-mind-spirit-place connections while addressing themes of feminism, land rights, ageism and ableism, history and literature, in a 60-minute immersive performance supported by original music, topped off by second-half opportunities for discussion and reflections on wellbeing and the ways we inhabit our environments. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Mark Stafford: Solo performance at the double in The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde at Helmsley Arts Centre

Split personality of the month: Mark Stafford in The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Helmsley Arts Centre, February 21, 7.30pm

PUBLISHED in 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic mystery tale of the timeless conflict between good and evil is performed by Mark Stafford in his compelling and faithful adaptation.

In fog-bound Victorian London, respectable lawyer Gabriel Utterson is concerned by a strange clause in his friend Henry Jekyll’s will, whereupon he investigates the sinister Edward Hyde, Jekyll’s unlikely protégé. Convinced that Jekyll and Hyde’s relationship is founded on blackmail, Utterson finds the truth to be far worse than he could have ever imagined. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

The poster for Saturday’s EQUUS UK Film & Arts Fest’s day of equine films at Helmsley Arts Centre

In Focus: EQUUS UK Film & Arts Fest, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, Block 1, 12 noon to 2.16pm; Block 2, 3.30pm to 5.07pm; Block 3, 7pm to 9.45pm

HELMSLEY Arts Centre, in collaboration with Ryedale Bridleways Group, presents the first British screening of the EQUUS UK Film & Arts Festival this weekend. 

Founded in 2013 by Illinois equestrian Lisa Diersen, who has spent her life in the company of horses, EQUUS aims to show the world how horses can bring everyone together regardless of race, age, gender, abilities or disabilities. 

Saturday’s event comprises two afternoon blocks of short films, exhibitions from Ryedale artists and an evening showing of the 96-minute feature film Big Star, The Nick Skelton Story.

Showing from 12 noon will be Horse & Human Connection, featuring Wings Of Angels, Healing Horses In Mongolia, Heart Of Compton and My Life Between The Reins.

The Wild Horse Collection, from 3.30pm, presents American Mustang (music video), Wild Heart  Mustang Book Project, Wild Horse Refuge “Dahtetse”, A Mustang Story promo, Okanagan Wild, Hellbent, Evoke and Renegade.

The Big Star Collections opens at 7pm with Healing In The Open, followed by Inside The In Gate and Unstable. After a 15-minute interval, Big Star will close the event.

Tickets for single blocks or the whole day are available on 01439 771700 or at helmsleyarts.co.uk.

An equine photograph from Valerie Mather’s 2025 trip to the USA

AMONG the exhibitors at Saturday’s EQUUS UK Film & Arts Fest event will be Yorkshire lawyer-tuned- portrait, documentary and travel photographer Valerie Mather.

“After a successful career in law, I retired early to pursue a lifelong passion for photography,” she says. “I learned to ride (English style) as a child but was brought up watching Western movies on television and longed to see for myself the real cowboys and cowgirls of the American West.

“That dream came true in 2025 when I visited the United States and spent time at the McCullough Peaks wild horse area and the Shoshone National Forest ranchlands in Wyoming. “

Another of Valerie Mather’s McCullough Peaks photographs on show at Helmsley Arts Centre on Saturday

Did you know?

RYEDALE Bridleways Group (RBG) covers the Ryedale district and North York Moors National Park. Activities include fundraising events, such as equestrian talks and films. RBG works with local authorities to seek to resolve issues on bridleways and Countryside Access Service Unsurfaced Unclassified Roads, as well as carrying out practical work such as bridleway clearances and  surveys.

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How Robin Simpson is switching from pantomime dame to dog for The Last Picture at York Theatre Royal Studio

Director John R Wilkinson and actor Robin Simpson in the rehearsal room for York Theatre Royal’s premiere of Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture: James Drury

IN the first York Theatre Royal production to be made for the Studio since 2019, associate director John R Wilkinson directs Robin Simpson in The Last Picture from February 5 to 14.

After his sixth season as the Theatre Royal pantomime dame in Sleeping Beauty – and confirmed already for a seventh winter in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs – Robin will swap the dame’s frocks and puns for the role of a dog in YTR, ETT and An Tobar & Mull Theatre’s world premiere co-production.

Robin will play an emotional support dog in Catherine Dyson’s 75-minute solo play, first performed in a reading at the Theatre Royal as one of 37 winning scripts selected from more than 2,000 entries by the Royal Shakespeare Company for its 37 Plays competition in 2023.

“We were given three of the plays to do in book-in-hand readings,” recalls John. “Juliet [creative director Juliet Forster] did  one about MeToo ; Mingyu [resident artist Mingyu Lin] Lin directed one about immigration and diaspora. Then, by default, I was given this one – and I lucked out because The Last Picture was the best play.

“Part of the deal is that the writer comes up to see the reading. Catherine is an actress from Swansea – one of her main roles was playing the ‘woman in black’ in The Woman In Black, the role that’s never credited in the programme! – and she’s branched out into writing plays.

“She and I really connected over my love of European theatre – bare-bones abstract  work – that leans into a storytelling in collaboration with the audience, where there’s very little in terms of set and design elements and instead the audience is encouraged to conjure the play for themselves.”

Dyson’s monodrama invites you to imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school trip, and then as a citizen of Europe in 1939 as history takes its darkest turn. While you imagine, emotional support dog Sam will be by your side to look after you and keep everyone safe in a play built around empathy, its power and limits and what it asks of us.  In a nutshell, The Last Picture explores our shared past, our present,  and the choices we face today.

“For context, Catherine has Jewish heritage,” says John. “Her grandfather escaped persecution just before everything happened in Poland, escaping over the Tatra Mountains, so there’s a personal connection with this story.”

In a novel theatrical conceit, “Catherine was interested in telling the story through the eyes of a dog”, says John, in a device where Robin does not come on dressed as a dog but gives voice to what the dog is seeing and experiencing.

Robin says: “Pretty much straightaway it’s made clear that it’s being told by a dog, where we’re asking the audience to go on a journey of the imagination, when the story is told through a series of pictures created in language.”

John rejoins: “There are only one or two, very clear, stage directions by Catherine, but one was that there should be no actual pictures: they should all be created in the audience’s imagination.”

The production will lean into folklore and ritual. “The play is really fascinating in that we’re operating on several different levels. Firstly, I’m telling a story where I’m asking the audience to accept that I’m a dog, who’s part of a group of Year 19 pupils – aged 13, 14 – as their emotional support on a museum visit,” says Robin.

“Then I ask the audience to be the pupils, so they’re very much part of the story, sometimes in the story with me, and at other points we’re asking them to empathise with the people  in the pictures created through language, because it’s a play about empathy and humanity.”

Robin continues: “I think the reason Catherine chose the dog’s point of view is that the dog can say dispassionately what’s going on in the pictures without having that human connection to the story, so the audience can make up their own mind.

“In finding the voice for the dog, it has to be about a balance between telling the story and colouring the story with emotion without performing it.”

John adds: “It’s such a clever form of storytelling that Catherine has leant into. One thing we said is that it’s not an animal study, but the dog gives the storytelling comfort and warmth.”

At the beginning, there is a description of how dogs have the ability to absorb human emotions without understanding them. “The dog picks up on the children’s emotions of being affected by what they’re seeing without the dog understanding why,” says Robin.

“What Catherine has done really cleverly is that there a lot of sticky political situations going on in the world that she doesn’t directly refer to,” says John. “But in terms of what she’s asking the audience to do, she doesn’t give a political viewpoint but she lets you sit and reflect on how it relates to what’s happening now.”

The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, February  5 to 14, except February 8, 7.45pm plus 2pm, February 7, 11 and 14. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in and around York as Colour & Light illuminates winter nights. Hutch’s List No. 4, from The York Press

Dame for a laugh anew: Graham Smith returns to the pantomime stage with Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre

A PANTO dame’s return and another’s transformation into a dog top Charles Hutchinson’s  cultural picks for early February and beyond.

Pantomime of the week: Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre in Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, Shiptonthorpe Village Hall, Shiptonthorpe, near Market Weighton, today, 3pm and 7pm; Sunday, 2pm; February 6 and 7, 7pm

GRAHAM Smith, Rowntree Players’ pantomime dame from 2004 to 2022, pulls on the frocks once more after a three-year hiatus in the York guest house proprietor’s debut for East Riding company Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre.

He plays Nellie Nickerlastic in Richard Waud’s production of Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, joined in principal roles by Neil Scott’s King Richard, Toby Jewsen’s Robin Hood, Chris McKenzie’s Little John, Henry Rice’s Will Scarlett, Paul Jefferson’s Friar Tuck, Alison Rosa’s Sheriff of Nottingham and Chloe Jensen’s Maid Marion. Tickets: 07922 443639 or email richardwaud@yahoo.co.uk.

Femme Fatale Faerytales: Dark feminist re-telling of age-old classic

A homecoming, a haunting, a holy rebellion: Femme Fatale Faerytales present Mary, Mary, Fossgate Social, Fossgate, York, February 1 and 2, 8pm (doors 7pm)

MARY, Mary quite contrary, wouldn’t you like to know how her garden grows? Step into the fairytale world of Femme Fatale Faerytales as Sasha Elizabeth Parker unveils a dark, lyrical, feminist re-telling of an age-old classic. Part confession, part ritual, part bedtime story for grown-ups, Mary, Mary invites you to meet the woman behind the nursery rhyme in all her wild, untamed, contrary glory.

In her York debut, expect enchanting storytelling, poetic prophecy and a subversive twist on the tales you thought you knew on two intimate, atmospheric nights in one of York’s cult favourite haunts. Box office: wegottickets.com. Box office: wegottickets.com.

Kym Marsh’s Hedy, left, and Lisa Faulkner’s Allie in Rebecca Reid’s updated version of Single White Female, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

World premiere tour of the week: Single White Female, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

SCREEN actress, 2010 Celebrity MasterChef winner, TV presenter, chef and cookery book author Lisa Faulkner returns to the stage for the first time in 21 years in Rebecca Reid’s darkly humorous stage adaptation of psychological thriller Single White Female, now updated to the social-media age.

Faulkner’s recently divorced mum Allie is balancing being a single parent with the launch of her tech start-up. When she decides to advertise for a lodger to help make ends meet, Kym Marsh’s Hedy offers her a lifeline, but as their lives intertwine, boundaries blur and a seemingly perfect arrangement begins to unravel with chilling consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Colour & Light: Illuminating Clifford’s Tower and York Castle Museum from February 4

Illumination launch of the week: Colour & Light, York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower, February 4 to 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 will be illuminated together when York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower become a combined stage for a 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 will bring York’s historic characters to life in a family-friendly projection open to all for free; no ticket required.

Matt Tapp’s ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok and Helen Gallagher’s ‘Calamity’ Jane in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Calamity Jane

Musical of the week: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Calamity Jane, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 4 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

HELEN Gallagher’s tough talkin’, gun-totin’ heroine ‘Calamity’ Jane and Matt Tapp’s former peace-officer ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok lead director Sophie Cooke’s cast for Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster’s musical Calamity James.

Deadwood’s citizens are content with their ways of life: supporting their fort of soldiers and socialising at the beloved Golden Garter saloon. However, when a new face blows in from the Windy City to create a stir, friendships will be formed, long-time loyalties tested and perhaps even secret love revealed. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Alexander Flanagan Wright in Wright & Grainger’s Helios at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Ancient & modern  drama of the week: Wright & Grainger in Helios, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 5, 7.30pm

EASINGWOLD theatre-makers Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger begin their new partnership with Theatre@41 by re-visiting Helios, wherein a lad lives half way up a historic hill, a teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car and a boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky.

In Wright’s story of the son of the sun god, Helios transplants the Ancient Greek tale into a modern-day myth wound around the winding roads of rural England and into the everyday living of a towering city. “It’s a story about life, the invisible monuments we build to it, and the little things that leave big marks,” he says. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Robin Simpson in rehearsal for Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture, premiering at York Theatre Royal Studio

Solo show of the week: The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 5 to 14, except February 8, 7.45pm, 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 The Last Picture, directed by John R Wilkinson.

Imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school 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 – in a story of our shared past, present and the choices we face today. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The poster for Super Furry Animals’ summer concert at York Museum Gardens

Gig announcement of the week: Live At York Museum Gardens presents Super Furry Animals, York Museum Gardens, July 11

FUTURESOUND completes the line-up for its third Live At York Museum Gardens season with Welsh art-rock icons Super Furry Animals, celebrating more than 30 years together with multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, lovingly handpicked from  nine albums.

Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce are returning to the concert platform in 2026 for the first time in ten years. Joining them in York will be special guests Baxter Dury, Los Campesinos!, Divorce and Pys Melyn. Tickets for SFA, along with Liverpool’s  Orchestra Manoeuvres In The Dark on July 9 and South Yorkshire ’s Self Esteem on July 10, are on sale at futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.

Super Furry Animals: Playing first concerts in ten years in 2026, including Live At York Museum Gardens headline show

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as snow blanket covers JORVIK. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 51, from The York Press

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 NCEM on 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.

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Mark Thomas and Ed Edwards go behind bars for Ordinary Decent Criminal’s take on prison life and political reawakening

“I want the audience to feel like they haven’t been to the theatre but have been through an experience, like they’d been beaten up by it!” says Mark Thomas of Ordinary Decent Criminal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

POLITICAL comedian, activist and actor Mark Thomas reunites with playwright and ex-offender Ed Edwards to perform Ordinary Decent Criminal at York Theatre Royal Studio on December 2 and 3.

Directed by Paines Plough joint artistic director Charlotte Bennett, who cut her theatrical teeth at the Theatre Royal’s TakeOver festival, Edwards’s tale of freedom, revolution and messy love tells the story of Frankie, a recovering addict sentenced to three and a half years in prison for dealing drugs in the 1990s after the Strangeways Prison Riot. All done and dusted in 70 intense minutes without an interval.

On arrival, Frankie finds that none of his fellow convicts are what they seem, but with his typewriter, his activist soul and his sore lack of a right hook, he somehow burrows his way into their troubled hearts, and they into his. In the most unexpected of places, he discovers that the revolution is not dead, only sleeping.

“It’s a play about a political reawakening,” says Edwards, who also wrote the Edinburgh Fringe First-winning A Political History Of Smack And Crack and England & Son. “It’s about a character who swallowed their political commitment after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, where it seems to him that all hope of political progress in the world has died. It’s also about seeing that the fight has to go on, with or without hope.”

Edwards served three and a half years in jail himself many moons ago. “A play has to have some sort of spark, so the spark for this was writing about those experiences and trying to make some sense out of them, which I hadn’t done for 30 years.”

How did Edwards come to collaborate with Thomas? “Mark saw my play The Political History Of Smack And Crack and really enjoyed it,” he says. “We met a couple of times after that and got on really well. Eventually, I wrote to him and asked if I could write something for him.

Ordinary Decent Criminal playwright Ed Edwards and comedian-actor Mark Thomas

“He said ‘yes’, and then we didn’t do that idea. We did something else – England & Son – that emerged from our conversations. Ordinary Decent Criminal is the follow-up to that.

“When you’re writing a play for Mark Thomas, you’re looking for the laughs, and Mark will always make them work.”

Thomas, whose tour of Ordinary Decent Criminal has brought him to the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Selby Town Hall and Leeds Playhouse already, now returns to York Theatre Royal Studio, where he performed England & Son in September 2023.

“I love Ed, I properly love him. He is my brother and my comrade,” he says of Edwards. “He’s a brilliant man, a really lovely bloke, and we communicate in a really meaningful way as colleagues. He’s so funny. He comes up with gags all the times.

“Like when I was about to go on stage at Paines Plough in England & Son, he suddenly appeared next to me to say he had this idea to change a line, when I was waiting for the lighting cue to start.”

Thomas recalls telling Edwards to “go away in brusque monosyllabic language”. “I walked on stage, I did do the new line, and afterwards he came up and said ‘I shouldn’t have done that to you’, but the line worked, and the way we work is not as structured as others might work in the theatre,” he says.

“We have a good argument, but good ones about art and ideas and ideology,” says Mark Thomas of his working relationship with Ed Edwards. Picture: Tony Pletts

“Ed has said that when I do stand-up he liked how I do impersonations that become characters very quickly, so he has written the scripts with Mark Thomas in mind. I love how he doesn’t waste time [in his writing]; he just gets on with it, so it feels like we can snap in and out of things.”

Thomas has found that he improvises less in theatre, where he is drawn to its emotional depth and power, allied to the fast pace and economy of his stand-up. “I’m 62, I’m officially five years from retirement, and on November 19 I celebrated my 40th anniversary as a professional performer, and what I love is that I’m still learning stuff; still finding new ways of doing things,” he says.

“I’m working with people who are teaching me new things, and for me, that’s wonderful because what’s the point if you get to the point where you say, ‘No, I’ll just do the same old stuff’. All of this is a delight to me, and Ed is such a unique voice as there’s no-one else that has his insightful passion.

“We have a good argument, but good ones about art and ideas and ideology, and I love that when Ed and I started working on England & Son, we worked with prisons on addiction recovery – and that work continues, taking shows into prisons.”

Thomas continues: “The prisoners will give you a little push, asking ‘have you been inside?’. ‘No, but the writer has’. ‘Have you ever had an addiction?’. ‘Yeah, but not now’ [Thomas has talked of having past issues with alcohol addiction, but is sober now, while Edwards is a recovering drug addict].

“They’re looking for bull****, so you do the show, and what’s fascinating is that the reaction is immediate. It just pours out of them, and a number of them have been inspired to write their own stories, so you feel you’ve won.

“Theatre opened up a world that I didn’t think was available to me,” says Mark Thomas. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

“We’ve worked with the Synergy Theatre Project too, who work with prisoners, workshopping and doing performances of shows about prison life.”

Thomas has enjoyed working with director Charlotte Bennett. “She’s magnificent,” he says. “What she’s great at, she’s absolutely brilliant at, is making you look at things anew, and you think, ‘oh, I’ve just been skipping over this’!

“It’s all about the work, and she’ll ask you things where you’ll say ‘I hadn’t thought of that’. What she’s good at too is pace, how it works, how it needs to shift, where you’ll investigate the overall shape of the show.

“Creating roles, how each character moves, she’ll look at the musicality of each character, which is fascinating, so it’s all been really refreshing, thinking ‘Ok, we can do it this way’.”

Thomas has drawn theatregoers, comedy fans and newcomers alike to the show. “What’s exciting is like when we were in Plymouth, a bloke said he was working on a construction site and was supposed to be going home but would now be there till Wednesday and didn’t know what to do in the evening, but he’d seen me do stand-up though he he’d never been to a theatre show…and he came!” he says.

“It’s that thing of ‘Don’t tell them it’s theatre’, and when I talked with Ed about the show, I said, I want them to feel like they haven’t been to the theatre but have been through an experience, like they’d been beaten up by it!”

Theatre and performance changed Mark Thomas’s life. “It opened up a world that I didn’t think was available to me, and that’s how I’ve always been, how I’ve always appreciated it since then,” says this son of a self-employed London builder.

Mark Thomas in Ed Edwards’ England & Son, which played York Theatre Royal Studio in 2023. Picture: Alex Brenner

“The first theatre performance I remember seeing was Spike Milligan playing Ben Gunn in Treasure Island, running around chucking cheese at a mermaid! I want people to come to this show [Ordinary Decent Criminal] and say it’s like nothing they’ve seen before.

“Theatre has this amazing way of making you feel and think something that you didn’t know or feel before; it gives you the chance to experience something that connects you with other people.”

Thomas suggests Ordinary Decent Criminal is more hopeful than England & Son. “It’s hopeful, and what this one does is show someone charting a course through obstacles in a way that England & Son didn’t,” he says.

“You see Frankie trying to find a way through all the dilemmas while keeping something of himself. There are lots more characters in this one too, and what’s great is that no-one is totally bad, whereas in England & Son, the dad was a dark, dark force. No-one is all bad, though every one of them is flawed.

“I love how the characters don’t punch down. It’s just as physical as England & Son, but Charlotte has brought environments to the set. I joke that it’s my IKEA Barbara Hepworth!”

Settled into the tour’s flow, Thomas concludes: “I actually think it’s a better show than England & Son. We’ve taken a step forward, and I think Ed would agree with that.”

Paines Plough, Live Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth and Ellie Keel Productions, in association with Synergy Theatre Project, present Ordinary Decent Criminal, York Theatre Royal Studio, December 2 and 3, 7.30pm. Age recommendation: 16 plus. Tickets update: sold out; for returns only, ring 01904 623568 or visit yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when walls come alive with art and light. Hutch’s List No. 47, from The York Press

Principal dancers, dance captains and siblings Anna Mai Fitzpatrick and Fergus Fitzpatrick in Riverdance’s 30th anniversary show, The New Generation

LEFT-FIELD Halloween entertainment, garden art and light installations, Normal comedy and a splurge gun musical spark Charles Hutchinson’s interest.

Dance show of the week: Riverdance, 30th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, today and tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

VISITING 30 UK venues – one for each year of its history – from August to December 2025, the Irish dance extravaganza Riverdance rejuvenates the much-loved original show with new innovative choreography and costumes, plus state-of-the-art lighting, projection and motion graphics, in this 30th anniversary celebration.

For the first time, John McColgan directs “the New Generation” of Riverdance performers, none of them born when the show began. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Blair Bitch Project: Playing on Navigators Art’s bill at YO Underworld 6 at The Basement

Live, left-field, local new music, comedy and words for Halloween: Navigators Art presents YO Underworld 6, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 7.30pm

IN this special Halloween edition, York arts collective Navigators Art plays host to riot grrrl punk and grunge-inspired York quartet Blair Bitch Project and improvising cellist and sound artist Gaia Blandina, performing collaborative, open-form pieces with Ish, featuring Iris Casling, double bass, Des Clarke, oboe, and Nika Ticciati, voice.

Joshua Arnold & Therine: Welcoming the coming of Samhain at YO Underworld 6

Taking part too are dark hurdy-gurdy and vocal-led trad and experimental drone folk combo Joshua Arnold & Therine, welcoming the coming of Samhain; Kane Bruce,  delivering his outrageously dark yet cheeky take on “taboo” topics, and Hull poet Melissa Shode, who explores identity in the socio-political climate and writes for release, justice and the voiceless. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance or on the door.

Steve Gunn: Showcasing his two 2025 albums at The Band Room, Low Mill, tonight. Picture: Paul Rhodes

Moorland gig of the week: Steve Gunn, The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, North York Moors, tonight, 7.30pm

STEVE Gunn, the ambient psychedelic American singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York, made his name as a guitarist in Kurt Vile’s backing band, The Violators. His myriad magical influences include Michael Chapman, Michael Hurley and John Fahey.

This weekend he will be showcasing his second album of 2025, Daylight Daylight, out on November 7 on No Quarter, as well as his first fully instrumental album, August’s Music For Writers. Box office: 01751 432900 or thebandroom.co.uk.

Hands and Voices: York choir singing at Laughs, Lyrics & You! at the Gateway Centre on Sunday

Inclusive open mic event of the week: Accessible Arts & Media presents Laughs, Lyrics & You!, Gateway Centre, York, Sunday, 2.30pm to 5pm

WHAT is Laughs, Lyrics & You!? “The idea is to have an open mic-type event, in a relaxed and friendly environment that’s accessible and fun, with tea and cake too,” says Accessible Arts & Media (AAM) chief executive officer Chris Farrell. “Our projects, IMPs, Movers and Shakers and Hands and Voices, will start the show with their wonderful music, dances and stories.

“Then it’s over to whoever would like to perform. Any talent is welcome, a duet, a solo instrument, a poetry reading, a recording of some original music, jokes…whatever you can think of would be great!” To take part, performers must contact projects@aamedia.org.uk or ring Hannah on 07762 428818. Admission is free; donations welcome.

Artist Ric Liptrot: Taking part in That Acomb Arty Thing

Art event of the week: That Acomb Arty Thing, Art Trail, until November 2; Open Studios, November 1 and 2

DISCOVER York artists’ work in venues around Acomb on the autumn Art Trail featuring Carla Ballantine, Linda Braham, Ric Liptrot, Jelena Lunge, Rae Merriman, Isaac Savage, Ginette Speed, Donna Taylor and Dianne Turner.

North Yorkshire Open Studios participants are hosting open studios next Saturday and Sunday: Paul Mathieson & Peter Mathieson, 49 Jute Road, 10am to 4pm; Peijun Cao, 60 Jute Road, 10.30am to 5pm; Fran Brammer, 81 Jute Road, 10am to 4pm; Charlotte Lister & Charley Hellier, 7 Chestnut Grove, 10am to 2pm; Robin Grover-Jacques, 35 Chestnut Grove, 11am to 4pm, and Mo Nisbet, 116 Acomb Road, 11am to 4pm.

Blue sigh thinking? Henry Normal reflects on himself, his mistakes, his Z celebrity status, in The Slideshow

Normal service resumed: Henry Normal, The Slideshow, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 8pm

THE Slideshow, as poet, film and TV producer/writer Henry Normal explains, is a multi-MEdia spectacular with the emphasis on the “me” in his celebration of his “meteoric rise to Z celebrity status”, followed by his joyous and inevitable slide into physical and mental decline.

Expect poetry, photos, jokes, music, dance, song, circus skills, costume changes, props and stories, exploring where Normal  went wrong in life, plus lessons you can learn from his mistakes, in this memoir with cautionary verse. Box office: helmsleyarts.co.uk.

David Barrott, left, Catherine Edge and Adam Marsdin in rehearsal for Settlement Players’ production of Party Piece

Calamitous comedy misadventure of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Party Piece, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 28 to November 1, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

AMERICAN director, writer, producer, historian and stuntman Martin T Brooks directs Settlement Players for the first time in Richard Harris’s calamitous 1992 comedy Party Piece.

Michael and Roma Smethurst are preparing meticulously for their fancy-dress housewarming party. Mrs Hinson, not the biggest fan of her upper-class new neighbours, is keeping a criticising eye on the attendees. Then disasters strike: an embarrassing lack of guests, a burning barbeque, a marauding Zimmer frame and a corpse showing up at the front door. Cue chaos. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Cassie Vallance, left, and Jane Bruce in Story Craft Theatre’s Bat, Cackle And Pop! at York Theatre Royal

Children’s Halloween show of the week: Story Craft Theatre in Bat, Cackle And Pop!, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 29 to 31, 10.30am and 1pm

WINIFRED the Witch thinks everyone has forgotten her birthday. Not so. There will be a big surprise party, but first, a special birthday cake must be made.

“We just need the last three rather spooky ingredients,” say York company Story Craft Theatre’s Cassie Vallance and Jane Bruce. “Our show is bubbling with all sorts of ghosts and ghouls – more silly than scary – and there’s plenty of opportunities to dabble in some spell making, as well as flying with luxury BAT Airways.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Rory Stewart: Discussing his new book, Middleland, at York Barbican

Book event of the week: Toppings presents Rory Stewart, Middleland, York Barbican, October 30, 7pm

NOW Professor of the Practice of Grand Strategy at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs and Alastair Campbell’s co-podcaster on The Rest Is Politics, Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade as Conservative MP of Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and the Border.

Living in the Eden Valley, he found inspiration in the beauty of Cumbrian landscape, its rugged history as a frontierland, and the spirit of its people, prompting him to write Middleland: Dispatches From The Borders, a portrait of rural Britain today: a place caught in tensions between farming and the natural world, between the need to preserve and to grow, between local and national politics. Over to you, Rory.  Tickets: toppingbooks.co.uk/events/york/rory-stewart-middleland/.

Fizzy with the singers in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone: Theo Rae, Isla Lightfoot, Olivia Swales and Beau Lettin

Musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, October 31 to November 8, 7.30pm, except Sunday and Monday ; 2.30pm, both Saturdays and Sunday

LESLEY Hill directs and choreographs York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s cast of 40 young performers in  Alan Parker and Paul Williams’s musical, replete with the movie songs You Give A Little Love,  My Name Is Tallulah, So You Wanna Be A Boxer?, Fat Sam’s Grand SlamandBugsy Malone.

In Prohibition-era New York, rival gangsters Fat Sam and Dandy Dan are at loggerheads. As custard pies fly and Dan’s splurge guns wreak havoc, penniless ex-boxer and all-round nice guy Bugsy Malone falls for aspiring singer Blousey Brown. Can Bugsy resist seductive songstress Tallulah, Fat Sam’s moll and Bugsy’s old flame, and stay out of trouble while helping Fat Sam to defend his business? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

In Focus: Tom Grennan, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, July 25 2026

BEDFORD singer-songwriter Tom Grennan is the first act to be confirmed for the Music Showcase Weekend at the 2026 York Racecourse flat racing season.

Grennan, 30, has achieved three UK number one albums, 2021’s Evering Road, 2023’s What Ifs & Maybes and 2025’s Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be, preceded by his top five-charting 2018 debut Lighting Matches. 

He has chalked up hit singles too with Little Bit Of Love, Let’s Go Home Together (with Ella Henderson), Remind Me, Lionheart (Fearless, with Joel Corry), Here, How Does It Feel, It Can’t Be Christmas, By Your Side (Calvin Harris, featuring Tom Grennan) and Not Over Yet (KSI, featuring Tom Grennan).

Next summer’s Knavesmire gig will form part of a busy touring schedule for Grennan, who also co-hosts the You About? podcast with TV and radio presenter Roman Kemp.

Racing and music fans can take advantage of a price freeze on adult general admission on the track’s website, meaning entrance to the main Grandstand and Paddock enclosure, starts at just £40 per person for a group of six. As well as free car parking, no booking fees apply on this route to purchase. To book, visit www.yorkracecourse.co.uk.

On the racecourse, the racing action will see seven thoroughbred contests with combined prize money of £380,000. The Group Two feature race will be the Sky Bet York Stakes.

The Summer Music Saturday meeting will be held on June 27; the Friday evening Music Showcase Weekend meeting on July 24. Music acts for both those days are yet to be confirmed; keep checking www.yorkracecourse.co.uk for further announcements, expected soon.

James Brennan, head of marketing and sponsorship says: “It is great news that Tom Grennan is joining the artists to have performed on the Knavesmire; a performer who has gone from strength to strength. It will herald a month for music and racing fans to remember.”

In Focus too: Luxmuralis presents Echoes Of Yorkshire, York Museum Gardens, until November 2, 6pm to 8.20pm

Luxmuralis’s Echoes Of Yorkshire transforming the St Mary’s Abbey ruins in York Museum Gardens. Picture: Duncan Savage, Ravage Productions, for York Museums Trust

LET light, colour and music surround you at the Echoes Of Yorkshire light and sound installation conjured by the internationally acclaimed Luxmuralis, who bring alive the culturally rich story of the Yorkshire Museum and York Museum Gardens.

Visitors are invited to “immerse yourself in the story of the historic site with contemporary light and music showcasing its age-defining artefacts and extraordinary exhibits. Join us to celebrate all that the museum and its gardens bring to our city and the wider north of England.”

In the 30-year collaboration of sculptor and artist Peter Walker and composer David Harper, Luxmuralis travels the world to create stories in light and sound for audiences at locations ranging from the Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral, London, to city-wide open-air projections in places such as Oxford and Limburg in the Netherlands.

Through combining fine art, light and sound, Luxmuralis reflects closely on the history and heritage of places by weaves together the contemporary and the ancient.

Now, for the first time, Luxmuralis is transforming the walls of York in Echoes Of Yorkshire in York Museum Gardens for ten evenings filled with six looping art installations and landscape lighting by Steve Rainsford.

Ticketed entry time slots are given every 20 minutes, but once in the gardens visitors can journey through the experience at their own pace with a recommended walking time of one hour. Refreshments will be available to buy on the night, including from Thor’s tipi.

Echoes Of Yorkshire is suitable for all ages. Audiences will experience the gardens’ history from the Roman period to its time as an abbey (St Mary’s Abbey) in tandem with Luxmuralis’s showcase of the Yorkshire Museum’s collections that span 60 million years from the Jurassic and the Mesolithic, through to the Romans, Viking, Anglo Saxon and Medieval.

Welcoming Luxmuralis to York Museum Gardens, Siona Mackelworth, head of audience and programme for York Museums Trust, says: “We are delighted that Luxmuralis agreed to produce a very special and bespoke show for us here in York.

“This is a celebration of all that the Yorkshire Museum brings to the city, its history and the location as the repository of great discoveries and stories. With this amount of content, the Luxmuralis light and sound show looks amazing.”

Luxmuralis artistic director Peter Walker says: “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with the team at Yorkshire Museum to deliver a truly distinctive experience set within the stunning and historically rich Museum Gardens.

“By drawing inspiration from the museum’s collections, this light installation re-imagines the architecture and landscape in an entirely new and transformative way.”

Tickets cost £13.50 per adult; £9.50 for children aged five to 16; free admission for under-fives. Box office: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk. Echoes Of Yorkshire is on a constant loop from 6pm to 8.20pm each night. Please note, only assistance dogs will be allowed into the gardens during the event.

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REVIEW: Anna Soden: It Comes Out Your Bum, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 11

Anna Soden: No bum notes to her songs or scatalogical subject matter

I HAVE in my hand a piece of paper. Or, more precisely, a piece of loo roll, handed out by our jocund hostess for It Comes Out Your Bum, comedian and actress Anna Soden, last seen on the York stage as a talking, trumpet-tooting pantomime cow In Jack And The Beanstalk.

On the sheet, she had written “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” Not as momentous as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s Peace In Our Time document, waved at Heston Aerodrome on September 30 1938: a bum deal when it turned out we were rather more than “halfway there” to the Second World War.

Anna, in party dress and party mood, swished among the tables at York Theatre Royal Studio , re-booted in Old Paint Shop livery for October’s cabaret season of comedy, burlesque and live music. She had penned a loo-roll bon-mot for each of us, a strip of positivity to be shared.

Now based in Brighton, but still bearing her York roots in her frank comedic manner, she had planned a grand entry, but in the absence of a stage curtain, there could be no element of surprise, no hiding place for the pair of buttocks, designed by York puppeteer and fellow comedian Freddie “Does Puppets” Hayes, through which Anna would announce her arrival.

What a bummer? No, she played on the absurdity of it all, having already broken down theatre’s fourth wall by explaining what should have been the ideal opening, establishing her facility for putting the cheeky into the butt cheek.

Poking her trumpet through the backside, she would soon emerge on the front side for an hour of “talking out of my ass”.  And yes, Anna, not to put too fine a word on it, did talk s**t, whether bodily functions of celebrities; stools colour; being caught short (like Paula Ratcliffe, when winning the 2005 London Marathon, she recalled).

She even imagined if we were to excrete flowers instead. Would that be poo-pourri, your reviewer ponders.

On a roll : Anna Soden’s bon-mot handed out to CharlesHutchPress

Not that Anna poo-pooed other subjects. Far from it. She turned herself into a string of sausages for five increasingly surreal minutes; she issued a tongue-deep-in-cheek apology to Andrew Lloyd Webber for dissing his musicals in her comedy videos that went viral on TikTok and YouTube.

Earlier she had made rather shorter shrift of putting down Boris Johnson with a pictorial one-liner and delivered a longer tongue-lashing to the propensity for actors from posh schools to do best, at the expense of state-school talents such as herself.

Albeit with a self-deprecating wink, she bragged of her prowess at slam poetry, duly delivering a fusillade of stream-of-conscious wham-bam-slam raps from audience suggestions. “Planes,” said  one. Planes promptly soared and crashed. Next? “Ships,” chipped in another. “No,” said Anna, sensing one mode of transport was enough. That ship had sailed.

She used the audience regularly, whether asking communal questions for hands-in-the-air answers or inviting individuals to read from her “script” for a “serious” play she was writing. Here is when the show went off-script, impromptu, unpredictable, Anna at her freest to respond how she saw fit. Using the audience, yes, but never going quite as far as abusing the assembled bums on seats.

The pace was snappy, the tone was chatty, the humour batty, peppered with bursts of satirical songs, each preceded by an exhortation for the tech desk to “Hit it”.

And hit the mark, she did. On a night of the scatological, Anna scattered logical thoughts from her playful “brain-bum” about the “been-there-done-that” universality of her subject matter; so much so, she should give herself a PooHD for her “toilet humour”. And there wasn’t a party pooper in the house.

Review by Charles Hutchinson

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How Anna Soden had the brainy idea of making an ass of herself in It Comes Out Your Bum at The Old Paint Shop

Anna Soden spouts forth in It Comes Out Your Bum

ANNA Soden was last seen on the York Theatre Royal stage as a pantomime cow.

An award-nominated bovine, no less, playing Dave The Talking Cow and Dave the Trumpet-playing Cow, to boot, in Jack And The Beanstalk in the winter of 2023-2024. And neither the back end of a panto cow, nor the front, but a full-on singing, dancing, chatterbox cow.

Now the York-raised, Brighton-based actor, comedian, musician and writer with ten million views for her comedy videos on TikTok and Instagram is returning to her home city to present her madcap debut comedy show, It Comes Out Your Bum, on night three of the new Old Paint Shop season of burlesque, comedy and live music in the Theatre Royal Studio.

Without further delay, let’s address the show title. “Anna’s brain is a bum – Come see all the nice things that come out of it!” reads the tagline on the Theatre Royal website. Cue an hour of songs, revenge and yes, “talking out your ass”.

Anna Soden as Dave The Talking Cow in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal in December 2023-January 2024: Nominated in Best Supporting Artist category at 2024 UK Pantomime Awards

Explain yourself, Anna. “Well, this show has been quite a long process,” she says. “Initially, as long ago as 2018, I thought, ‘why is no-one making a show about poo?’. So, I’ve been writing and re-writing it for years, starting off as a show about poo, then it became poo material, not gross, but really stupid toilet humour, which I love, and a musical fever dream too.”

A work-in-progress version of the show ran in the Wee Yurt at Hoots@Potterrow at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, billed as: “Girls aren’t allowed to talk about poo. Even though we all do it! Is Anna sensitively exploring how we’ve managed to gender a universal body function? Or is she just talking about how she used to fancy Milo from the Tweenies and pretending to be the tiny nerdy man that lives in all the calculators in the world? Maybe both!”

The show has moved on again. “I had a chat with a comedian who said ‘you can’t call a show ‘Poo’ because there are so many rules to comedy’, but I’ve been doing so much stand-up comedy and so much new material has emerged since then for the show. It’s now a celebration of the weird stuff that comes out of my brain-bum!

“I think It Comes Out Your Bum is such a life-affirming title. It might put people off, but I don’t mind that. If you don’t feel the title’s not for you, I still don’t think that means it’s not a show for you. Maybe it’s just stubbornness on my part, but I just think it’s funny – and it sparks a lot of questions!”

“You have to find yourself funny because you have to spend so much time with yourself,” reasons comedian, writer, actress and writer Anna Soden

What’s more, “I enter the stage coming through a giant-sized bum made by Freddie Hayes [the York puppeteer and fellow comedic talent behind such shows as Potatohead and The Magic Lady}. It then just sits on stage and I make a bit of a joke about that.”

Anna’s progression into stand-up comedy has been a “natural step”, she says.  “I was enjoying doing a lot of comedy stuff in my acting, though I was also writing serious plays [her adaptation of Five Children And IT and her folk musical Mad For Our Daughters], but I really enjoy stand-up as it scratches an itch that theatre doesn’t.

“Theatre makes you have to be earnest, and I respect that as a jobbing actor, whereas there are no rules to comedy, performing solo, which makes me a better jobbing actor because it keeps my naughtiness, my playfulness, alive – and as a jobbing actor, I’m happy to collaborate with others.”

Performing comedy could be a lonely experience, but Anna takes it in her stride. “The feeling of fear is not that deep,” she says. “If you bomb, it’s not an attack on you personally. It’s just that those people on that night didn’t find it funny. It’s not that deep!

Anna Soden in rehearsal for her adaptation of Five Children And IT

“I was very serious at drama school. I just wanted to do Ibsen plays, and I did that for two years, but you’ve got to have variety – and also I think I have an excellent sense of humour, so why wouldn’t I want to use that?! You have to find yourself  funny because you have to spend so much time with yourself!”

After six successive years of pantomime commitments, Anna will be taking a break this winter. “I did have a couple of offers, including a big Georgian panto, and I’ve loved doing them, but I don’t want my year to revolve around panto,” she says.

“I’ve started being part of the Future Theatre Makers cohort of associate artists, where Chichester Festival Theatre is giving each of us theatre mentorship and then we each write and put on a show in 2027. We’re given funding to support our involvement, enough not to do a panto in a random town.

Anna had planned to do a month-long tour of It Comes Out Your Bum shows. “But then I got cast in Ian Jarvis’s play Steve And Stuff Forever at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, where I was for six weeks,” she says.

Anna Soden’s fairy with her fellow York Theatre Royal Travelling Pantomime cast members, Robin Simpson’s dame, Faye Campbell’s hero, Reuben Johnson’s villain and Josh Benson’s comic turn, in 2020

Robin Simpson’s dame, Anna Soden’s fairy, Faye Campbell’s hero and Reuben Johnson’s villain“It was a romantic play, where I played Steff, not a manic pixie dream-girl, but a spontaneous, free-spirited, heart-on-your-sleeve girl, whereas Steve was very serious and very sensible, planning everything. Classic rom-com!”

What should Saturday’s audience expect in It Comes Out Your Bum? “Don’t expect any narrative or any big meanings. It’s just an hour of ‘stupidness’; five minutes where I pretend to be a sausage; five minutes where I apologise to Andrew Lloyd Webber for what I said about him in my videos, and lots of songs.”

Anna Soden: It Comes Out Your Bum, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, Saturday (11/10/2025), 8pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

“Don’t expect any narrative or any big meanings. It’s just an hour of ‘stupidness’,” says Anna Soden of her hour-long comedy show It Comes Out Your Bum

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In Focus: Return of The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 9 to 25

The Old Paint Shop, pictured on its inaugural night on October 5 2024, returns to York Theatre Royal Studio tomorrow

THIS autumn, York Theatre Royal Studio is being transformed once again into cabaret club The Old Paint Shop for a season of comedy, live music, burlesque and more, featuring Paint Shop favourites and exciting new acts.  

Seating will be cabaret club style and unreserved, offering an intimate theatrical experience where audience members are encouraged to grab a drink at the bar, sit back, relax and enjoy the show.   

Evolution Of Fishermen: Opening new season tomorrow. Picture: Luke Ryan Photography

Evolution Of Fishermen, October 9, 8pm 

EVOLUTION Of Fishermen are a contemporary folk band, brought together by a mutual love of storytelling, harmony and original folk songs. Since forming in 2021, they have played Green Note, O2 Academy Islington, Old Blue Last in London and The Crescent in York, plus festival appearances at Wilderness, Deershed, Gate To Southwell, LOOP fest & Sam Lee’s The NEST stage at Medicine Festival.

Nun better than Freida Nipples in the company of The Exhibitionists. Picture: Fake Trash Studio

Freida Nipples presents The Exhibitionists, October 10, 8pm  

JOIN York’s international award-winning burlesque artiste Freida Nipples as she welcomes some of her favourite and most fabulous performance artists from across the UK. From burlesque to drag and beyond, be sure to expect the unexpected.

Anna Soden: Talking out of her ass in brain wave of a debut comedy show

Anna Soden: It Comes Out Your Bum, October 11, 8pm  

ANNA Soden’s brain is a bum. “Come see all the nice things that come out of it,” says the York-raised, Brighton-based comedian, actor and award-nominated York Theatre Royal pantomime cow.

It Comes Out Your Bum is Anna’s madcap debut comedy hour, full of songs, revenge and talking out your ass. This 2025 Komedia New Comedian semi-finalist has featured on Absolute Radio, iHeart Radio and BBC Upload  and attracted more than 11million views on TikTok/Instagram. 

Fool(ish) Improv: Talking cobblers

Fool(ish) Improv: Cobbled Together, October 11, 8pm 

FOOL(ISH) are delighted to deliver a new kind of improv gig as they return to York Theatre Royal. Inspired by York’s most famous street [Shambles], Cobbled Together is a show where the audience brings its own stories and memories of York to pave the way for some freshly ground comedy.

“All things local are about to get a little bit more ludicrous” say Fool(ish).  “Join us for a spontaneous and ‘shambolic’ comedy where everything is made up… apart from the bits that happen to be true!” 

Kiki Deville: Amusing tales to heartfelt confessions. Picture: Veronica Vee Marx

An Evening with Kiki Deville, October 17, 8pm   

COMBINING a big voice, big humour and an even bigger heart, award-winning cabaret diva Kiki DeVille presents a dazzling night of storytelling, sharp wit and unforgettable moments.

From amusing tales to heartfelt confessions, Kiki serves it all, seasoned with her signature sass and a splash of vintage glam. Expect wonderful songs, side-splitting stories and perhaps a visit from glamorous guests along the way.

The Jazzville Quartet’s singer Raquel Alvaro

The Jazzville Quartet, October 18, 8pm  

JOIN York jazz combo The Jazzville Quartet for a joyful celebration of Latin favourites (some sung in the original Portuguese), swing classics and haunting jazz ballads, led fabulous Portuguese jazz songbird Raquel Alvaro.

Accompanying Raquel will be piano maestro, arranger and composer Alec Robinson, saxophone legend Jon Taylor and double bass player Tim Murgatroyd.

Queer Spaces: Imagining a better world through a queer lens

Queer Spaces: Climate Pride, October 22, 7pm  

THIS one-off night of sparkling new stories imagines a better world through a queer lens. Written and performed by York LGBTQIA artists trying out new work for the first time, Queer Spaces is presented by Roots in association with York Theatre Royal and the Stephen Joseph Theatre.  

Pianist Karl Mullen: Everything from Chopin to Oasis, via Led Zeppelin and Les Dawson

Karl Mullen, October 23, 8pm  

KARL Mullen is a familiar sight to York visitors as the busker with an upright piano playing outside York Minster, jazz fixture at The Phoenix Inn, in George Street, and Pub Piano Champion at the Leeds Piano Competition.

Mullen has a huge repertoire and specialises in virtuosic arrangements of material from The Great American Songbook, classic pop and rock, boogie-woogie and blues. Expect a highly entertaining mix of everything from Chopin to Oasis, via Led Zeppelin and Les Dawson, delivered with a large dose of humour and stories. 

Jazz singer and pianist Nicki Allan

The Nicki Allan Quartet, October 24, 8pm  

LEEDS jazz outfit The Nicki Allan Quartet are headed by jazz singer and pianist Nicki Allan, whose vocal style blends wholesome blues sound with soulful jazz and a hint of R&B. Together, the quartet plays a lively and varied set of up-tempo music with a fresh, modern sound interwoven with bold improvisation, scat and a deliciously driving feel.  

The Isolation Creations: Hosting The Haunted Haus Of Games

The Haunted Haus Of Games with The Isolation Creations, October 25, 8pm 

EYES down for a full Haus of spooky shenanigans as drag queen comedians The Isolation Creations return to York Theatre Royal with their Halloween show, full of ghosts and ghoulies!

Join Jamie Honeybourne and Alan Gibbons for an evening of bingo, laughter, games, surprises and cheesy prizes. “Dress in your best spooky fancy dress and you might go home with a trick and a treat,” they say. 

Tickets for The Old Paint Shop are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.