The Boy Who Bit Picasso: art and fun at York Theatre Royal Studio today and tomorrow. Picture: Geraint Lewis
WHEN Picasso comes to stay, anything can happen at York Theatre Royal Studio today and tomorrow.
Untied Artists invite four year olds and upwards to “come and play down on the farm with Tony and Picasso”.
“We’ll
have loads of fun, make crazy pictures and tell the true story of how a young
boy became friends with one of the greatest artists who ever lived,” they say.
The Boy Who Bit Picasso is an interactive piece of theatre with storytelling, music and chances to make your own art – whether mask-making, collages or drawings – in a hands-on, humorous family show that introduces the influential 20th-century Spanish artist through the eyes of a young boy.
Inspired
by Antony Penrose’s book of the true story of how a boy became friends with
Pablo Picasso, Untied Artists’ show is directed by Jake Oldershaw and
originally was co-produced with Oxford Playhouse.
Tickets for today and tomorrow’s 11am and 2pm performances are on sale on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
TORRID TIMES: Benedict Turvill as Konstantin and Livy Potter as Nina in The Seagull. Picture: John Saunders
TUMULTUOUS passions and artistic egos collide in York Settlement Community Players’ production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull at York Theatre Royal Studio.
The February 26 to March 7 run completes director Helen Wilson’s ten-year project to stage all four of the Russian playwright’s major works in York, after Three Sisters in 2010, The Cherry Orchard in 2015 and Uncle Vanya in 2018.
Chekhov’s 1895 tragicomedy follows
famous Russian actress Arkadina (played by Stephanie Hesp) as she brings her
novelist lover Trigorin (Ben Sawyer) to spend the summer at her brother’s
lakeside estate.
Arkadina’s son Konstantin (Benedict Turvill) is preparing for the premiere of his bold new play starring his girlfriend Nina (Livy Potter). For the assembled audience of family and friends, the play’s first and only performance sets off a series of events that will alter the course of all their lives, forever.
Wilson’s multi-generational cast also features Maurice Crichton as Dr Dorn; Glyn Morrow, Sorin; Paul Joe Osbourne, Shamrayev; Elizabeth Elsworth, Polina; Lucy May Orange, Masha, and Sami Sok, Medvedenko.
Helen says: “Chekhov always wrote for an ensemble cast with wonderful parts for women. The Seagull is no exception. Actors love Chekhov and it’s my mission to bring the public round to him too.
“He is so often misunderstood. The
Seagull is a comedy, as Chekhov describes it, and laughter and tears often
spill over into each other.”
Taking principal roles for Helen for the first time will be Benedict Turvill, 22, last seen in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity For York at the Spurriergate Centre in December, and Livy Potter, 26, whose last role was “being blokey” in York Shakespeare Project’s Antony And Cleopatra at Theatre @41 Monkgate last autumn.
Benedict Turvill and Livy Potter: performing for Settlement Players director Helen Wilson for the first time in The Seagull
“Playing Konstantin and his girlfriend Nina, they have such emotional journeys to go on,” says Helen. “They must go from being so in love in Act One to being in abject despair in Act Four. For young actors, The Seagull has everything in it for them.”
Livy says: “The ‘realness’ of the language can sometimes take your breath away. You read it for the first time and then read it again later, after you’ve experienced something, and the humanness of those words is so affecting.”
Benedict says: “When I’ve read Chekhov
in the past, I’ve always thought it was a rather rigid attempt at being
natural, but once it comes off the page, as you rehearse it, it really works.”
“When you get to that point, you can really open your performance to it,” says Livy, who will be performing at the theatre where she works as the marketing and press assistant.
“I’m really looking forward to doing
that, because I’ve seen a lot of plays in that Studio space and I know what
works and what doesn’t and that makes it an exciting prospect to be on that
stage. It’s an awareness of how to use that space that is the key.”
Adapting to that space, Helen says: “I’ve
learnt from the past productions not to have so much on stage, like having a
piano and chaise longue previously. There’ll be a soundscape and lighting, but
what really matters is that the play will be absorbing to watch in such an
intimate space.”
Amid such intimacy, Chekhov’s comedy
will blossom. “There’s such humour in the pretentious characters,” says
Benedict. “Playing a funny character who’s not consciously funny, the audience
will laugh at you, not with you.”
Roll on Wednesday, when The Seagull takes flight until March 7. Tickets for the 7.45pm evening performances and 2pm matinee on February 29 are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Emma Whitelock’s Epiphany, now featuring in the poster for York Settlement Community Players’ production of The Seagull
Did you know?
YORK artist Emma Whitelock has provided
the promotional artwork for the Settlement Players’ production of The Seagull.
Describing her painting Epiphany, Emma
says: “Its lone figure on the shore echoes perfectly Chekhov’s mood of longing
in The Seagull. The piece was inspired by a misty winter sunrise on the
Yorkshire coast and aims to capture a poignant moment; the outer world
reflecting the inner.”
Emma’s artwork explores land, sea and solitude,
her inspiration coming from the
dramatic Yorkshire moors and coast, together with the exceptional light and
vibrancy of Cornish summers.
Artist Emma Whitelock in her studio
Using acrylic with mixed media, she builds
layers that evolve intuitively to create textured, semi-abstract works, marked
by big skies, atmospheric colours and an expressive style. “I aim to transport
the viewer to wild places, resonant with memories or possibilities,” she says.
The next chance to see Emma’s paintings will be
at York Open
Studios 2020 at Venue 43, 11
Trentholme Drive, The Mount, York, on April 18, 19, 25 and 26 from 10am to 5pm,
preceded by a preview evening on April 17.
Anna Soden, Joe Feeney, Lewes Roberts and Kate Cresswell in Cosmic Collective Theatre’s Heaven’s Gate
FOUR cups of Apple Sauce. Four canvas camp beds. One Comet. Heaven’s Gate is closing and the Away Team are ready for Graduation, but whatever you do, don’t mention the C-word. Cult, that is.
Premiered
by the new York company Cosmic Collective Theatre at last summer’s Great
Yorkshire Fringe in York, the 55-minute Heaven’s Gate is orbiting Yorkshire
on its first tour, playing the Visionari community programming group’s Studio
Discoveries season at the York Theatre Royal Studio tonight (February 7) at
7.45pm.
Written by
company co-founder Joe Feeney, this intergalactic pitch-black comedy imagines
the final hour of four fictionalised members of the real-life
UFO-theistic group, Heaven’s Gate.
“As they prepare for their ‘Graduation’ to the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, initially the excitement is palpable, but soon the cracks start to appear,” says Joe, an alumnus of York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre, along with fellow cast member Anna Soden.
“I’ve always been interested in slightly unusual stories, like the paranormal,” says Joe. “I remember reading about the Heaven’s Gate cult, a real-life cult in San Diego, California, who believed God was an alien in a space ship and they were aliens too but wearing the bodies of humans, but actually being versions who would be beamed up to heaven.
“A lot of their religious mantras were from Star Trek and Star Wars, and they all had matching hair-dos and tracksuit clothing.”
Joe was not aware of any previous fictionalised works telling the Heaven’s Gate story. “About 18 months ago, I was watching this BBC Four documentary about meteorites, and it got to 1997 and they started talking about the Comet Hale-Bopp in the sky in March that year,” he recalls.”
“They mentioned an American cult who said it was a calling from God and they could see a UFO in the trail that would take them to heaven.”
These are the facts: On March 26, 1997, the San Diego County Sheriff’s department discovered 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members in a house in the suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. They had participated in a mass suicide, co-ordinated in ritual suicides, in the belief they would reach the aforementioned extraterrestrial space craft trailing in Comet Hale-Bopp’s slipstream.
“Learning about this, the story quickly went from humour to thinking that, ‘oh my god, people need to hear this story and the terrible things they all went through,” says Joe.
“That’s why I’ve written about the fictionalised last hour of four members, drawing on the iconography and ideology of other cults, as well as Heaven’s Gate, in the play.”
Joe has created four “relatable characters”. “They are everyday people who found themselves in the right or wrong place and who felt themselves being swept up in it,” he says.
His writing tone is humorous but darkly so. “The play is a comedy, albeit a black comedy that takes the subject seriously but in a satirical way, managing to find a critique within that satire,” he says.
In the publicity material, Cosmic Collective Theatre make a point of saying “Don’t say the C-word. Cult!”. Why not, Joe?
“The word ‘cult’ always has a stigma to it, but a lot of people in cults don’t know they’re in a cult. They think that they’re in a religion. I don’t want to stigmatise it,” he says. “What’s the difference between God being in a UFO and God being someone with a white beard?
“We hope there are 39 people in a spaceship on the other side of the world. That’s a lovely thought, but the reality is those people are buried somewhere in America.”
Joe was keen to address another subject in the play, amid the rising tide of intolerance and division in the 21st century. “Heaven’s Gate is also about identity, how we make our journey through the world, when we’re now living in a polarised world where we all pin our beliefs to the mast,” he says.
Cosmic Collective Theatre, who enjoyed a sold-out run at the Drayton Arms Theatre, London, after the York premiere, have so far played Harrogate Theatre Studio and The Carriageworks, Leeds, on tour. Still to come are Hull Truck Theatre Studio, on February 14 at 8pm and Slung Low at Holbeck Theatre, Leeds, on February 16 at 5pm.
Joining Joe and Anna in the cast are Lewes Roberts and Kate Cresswell. “The four of us all went to Mountview [Academy of Theatre Arts]. Myself, Lewes and Kate were there from 2015 to 2018; Anna was in the year above – and we’d already been part of the York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre together and worked backstage there too,” says Joe.
“We started the company with a punk ethos, and this time last year I wrote Heaven’s Gate and we managed to get it into the Great Yorkshire Fringe festival last summer. On the back of that, we got a London run, and now we’ve booked this winter tour, stopping off at venues all four of us have admired or performed in,
“We kind of shot for the moon with all the venues we wanted to do, and if you don’t ask, you don’t get. We had a bucket list of ideal locations and virtually all of them said ‘yes’. Doing the tour at the start of the year is great too, as we can then plan the rest of the year, like going back to the Edinburgh Fringe.”
Performing at York Theatre Royal has particular resonance for Joe
and Anna. “This is incredibly special for us,” says Joe. “I’ve been involved
with York Theatre Royal for more than 20 years. I was a Youth
Theatre member for ten-plus years and have worked as crew backstage
on and off since 2010.
Explaining why Cosmic Collective Theatre are so named, Joe
says: “First of all, we were a collective, with our own individual strengths,
but given that our first play is ‘astronomical’, and we want to make theatre
that is out of this world, we settled on that name and we’ve gone from strength
to strength.
“It was our first goal to do the Great Yorkshire Fringe and we had the honour of doing the first play on The Arts Barge’s new home, the Selby Tony barge on the Ouse, so we can always say we had our world premiere on water and then our world premiere on land in the Basement at City Screen a couple of days later…on two days that happened to be the hottest two days of the year!
“Me and Anna have been involved with Arts Barge for ten years,
with Anna’s mum performing in the Bargestra, and so it felt like a homecoming
doing the first show. As does this return now, performing as professional
actors at the Theatre Royal for the first time.”
York
tickets for Heaven’s Gate can be booked on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk;
Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; The Holbeck,
slunglow.org/event/heavens-gate.
Please
note: Heaven’s Gate contains references to abuse and suicide
and has mild swearing. Age recommendation: 15 plus.
Preacherman in One Foot In The Rave, the closing show of Visionari’s Studio Discoveries programme
DO mention the C-word. Cult!
The Visionari community programming group’s final choice for
this week’s Studio Discoveries season is One Foot In The Rave, the debut verse
play by writer and performance poet Alexander Rhodes at the York Theatre Royal
Studio tomorrow (February 8) at 7.45pm.
Rhodes relates the
story of a disillusioned
23-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, who breaks free free from the cult and lands on
the Ecstasy-fuelled dance floors of Nineties’ clubland. Shunned by everyone he
knows, he is not prepared for what lies ahead.
“In 1976, Sean’s world changes for
ever. Dragged into a doomsday cult, by parents who are struggling to find their
own identities, the family are brainwashed into believing the end of the world
is nigh. But the route to salvation is not as it seems,” says Rhodes,
introducing his his verse play.
Billed as “an energetic mix of agony and total
Ecstasy”, One Foot In The Rave is set to a backdrop of club classics as Rhodes moves
hypnotically between the characters and scenes to deliver the chemical highs
and pitiful lows. Expect wry observations, chemically induced inspirations and
twisted logic in a warmly witty, soulful, self-aware story of survival.
Who Is
Alexander Rhodes?
“Alexander Rhodes” is just an idea…says
“Alexander Rhodes”.
This idea is, in fact, the third
incarnation of a career as a DJ and producer spanning 18 years. Having moved
through three different genres, each with its own stage name and distinctive
sound, the Alexander Rhodes music project became a spoken-word and performance
art project in early 2015.
“If you look hard enough you will
find a few house music mixes here, the odd chill out track there, echoing in
the digital ether,” he says.
Since 2015, “Alexander” has written and
performed spoken word all over the UK. He started Plymouth’s Pucker Poets, hosts
of a regular poetry slam for cash competition.
Rhodes has taken part in numerous poetry
slams and will take One Foot In The Rave on tour in April and May 2020.
Visionari Studio Discoveries presents Alexander Rhodes: One Foot In The Rave, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow (February 8), 7.45pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or atyorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guide: 16+; show contains drug and alcohol references.
Heart-breaking: Nathaniel Hall in his one-man show First Time at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Pictures: Andrew Perry
DAY three in the Studio Discoveries festival house, and York
Theatre Royal’s Visionari community programme group will be presenting
Nathaniel Hall’s First Time tomorrow night.
Can you remember your first time? Nathaniel can’t seem to
forget his. To be fair, he has had it playing on repeat for the last 15
years, and now he is telling all in his one-man show on tour in North Yorkshire
this month.
After
playing the VAULT Festival in London, Hall has embarked on his travels, taking
in the McCarthy at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre last night, Harrogate
Theatre’s Studio Theatre tonight and York Theatre Royal Studio tomorrow as part
of Studio Discoveries, a week of new theatre chosen by Visionari.
The party is over, the balloons have all burst and Nathaniel is
left living his best queer life: brunching on pills and Googling ancient
condoms and human cesspits on a weekday morning…or is he?
“Join me as I blow the lid on the secret I’ve been keeping all these years,” says Nathaniel Hall
After
playing the Edinburgh Fringe for four weeks last summer, HIV+ queer artist and
theatre-maker Hall takes First Time on the road as he strives to stay positive
in a negative world. “Join me as I blow the lid on the secret I’ve been
keeping all these years,” he says.
Conceived, written and performed by HIV activist Hall, this
humorous but heart-breaking 75-minute autobiographical show is based on his
personal experience of living with HIV after contracting the virus from his first
sexual encounter at 16.
“Narratives
of HIV often portray people living with the virus as the victim. First Time
doesn’t accept this stance,” says Hall. “It not only transforms audiences into
HIV allies, but also helps them rid toxic shame from their own lives.”
First Time
takes up Hall’s story after an all-night party, when “he hasn’t been to bed and
he hasn’t prepared anything for the show. He’s only had 12 months and a grant
from the Arts Council, but he can’t avoid the spotlight anymore and is forced
to revisit his troubled past”.
“First Time not only transforms audiences into HIV allies, but also helps them rid toxic shame from their own lives ,” says Nathaniel Hall
His path leads from sharing a stolen chicken and stuffing
sandwich with a Will Young lookalike aged 16, through receiving the devastating
news aged 17 and heart-breaking scenes devouring pills and powder for
breakfast, to a candlelit vigil and finally a surprising ending full of
reconciliation, hope…and a houseplant from Mum.
Commissioned
by Waterside Arts and Creative industries Trafford and developed with Dibby
Theatre, the original production led the Borough of Trafford’s 30th World AIDS Day commemorations in 2018.
Directed by
Chris Hoyle and designed by Irene Jade, with music and sound design by Hall,
First Time will be staged at 7.45pm at each location. Tickets:
Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; York, 01904 623568 or
yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Visionari’s Studio Discoveries festival
runs until Saturday. For full details, visit the Theatre Royal website.
York Settlement Community Players director Helen Wilson bonding with Cliff, the seagull from Dotty’s Vintage Tearoom in Staithes, ahead of her production pf The Seagull
CHEKHOV devotee Helen Wilson set herself the challenge of directing the 19th century Russian’s four greatest plays for York Settlement Community Players in ten years.
Next month, the project will be completed with his 1895 tragicomedy The Seagull, his most famous work, as Settlement celebrate their centenary by returning to the York Theatre Royal Studio.
First, however, Helen will give a library talk tomorrow (January 29) from 6pm to 8pm at York Explore to mark Anton Chekhov’s 160th birthday, under the title of Adventures In The Cherry Orchard: Chekhov And Me.
“Why is Anton Chekhov so beloved and called ‘the father of the modern theatre’,” Helen will ask herself. “I’ll seek to explain why through anecdotes and a little biography; casting a light on why he called his plays ‘comedies’.
“So, come and toast Chekhov’s 160th birthday with a glass of vodka or wine and be entertained by extracts of his work from The Seagull cast. As I direct the fourth of his major plays, I’ll share my enthusiasm for a great Russian dramatist.”
Chekhov And Me: Helen Wilson’s talk at York Explore
This will be York tutor, theatre director and actor Helen’s final Chekhov production as Settlement tackle the late 19th century work that heralded the birth of modern theatre with its story of unrequited love, the generation gap and how life can turn on a kopek: a raw tragicomedy of poignancy yet sometimes absurd playfulness.
She had not envisaged doing all the Chekhov quartet when she set out in March 2010. “I did Three Sisters in the Theatre Royal Studio, and I thought that would be that, as it was my ambition to do that play,” recalls Helen.
“But then I did The Cherry Orchard at Riding Lights’ Friargate Theatre in September 2015, and I was on a roll, so we did Uncle Vanya in the Theatre Royal Studio in March 2018 and now The Seagull in the Studio again. Two actors have been in all of them: Maurice Crichton and Ben Sawyer. They just keep auditioning!”
Helen can see patterns in Chekhov’s work when putting the four side by side. “Chekhov has both ensemble text and ‘duo-logue’, where there’s so much going on and so much subtext too,” she says.
“So for The Seagull, I’m having to hold both ensemble rehearsals and separate rehearsals for the main characters.
Helen Wilson and seagull Cliff in Staithes
“And having done the three other plays, I can point to the pattern where Act One is always a souffle, with plenty of laughing at these slightly inept characters thinking they are something they’re not, and the audience having that delicious moment of thinking, ‘well, actually that’s not going to happen’. Then Chekhov likes to lob a bomb into the room in Act Three.”
Helen has “always felt that The Seagull has never fully made sense on stage” when she has seen past productions. “Like Irina Arkadina has always been seen as a monster, when she’s not,” she says.
“It’s important to show what’s beneath that, and Chekhov always gives you the opportunity to see the other side of the character. That’s what I want to explore and exploit.
“They’re all vulnerable, every one of them…but when I went to see Vanessa Redgrave in the play when I was nine, I wasn’t very impressed! Her speech at the end wasn’t very good!
“In this production, I want there to be vulnerability, but also warmth, in every character, for the audience to be able to laugh and cry with them.”
Settlement regular Maurice Crichton (Vanya) and Amanda Dales (Yelena) in rehearsal for York Settlement Community Players’ Uncle Vanya in 2018
Helen sees a difference between The Seagull and the other three plays. “It isn’t like the others in that the ending is very abrupt,” she says. “Chekhov was very influenced by Ibsen, and this is more of an Ibsen ending than elegiac, but the play is also a great deal funnier than people realise, especially in Act One.
“As with Ibsen and Shakespeare, you can be too reverent in how you present it, but I want people to find the characters recognisable types that they know.
“All life is there; you don’t have to hit people over the head with it. All the resonance is there. It’s all going at someone’s home and that’s how it should feel.”
What has Helen learned from her earlier productions? “Not to have so much on stage, like having a chaise longue previously! The costumes will be period, there’ll be a soundscape and lighting, but what matters is to make it absorbing to watch, so it’s going to be very intimate.”
Settlement’s production, by the way, will be carrying the best wishes of writer/translator Michael Frayn, who has sent the York company a message of gratitude. “It’s a wonderful achievement for YSCP to have performed all of Chekhov’s four last great plays – and I can’t help being pleased, of course, that they have chosen to use my translations,” he wrote.
Helen Wilson standing by cherry blossom when directing The Cherry Orchard in 2015
“Most productions of the plays these days seem to be ‘versions,’ with
the period, location, genders, and politics changed to make them more relevant
to audiences who might otherwise not be up to understanding them.
“People in York, though, are evidently made of tougher stuff, because the simple intention of my translations is to get as close to the original Russian as I can. Just occasionally, perhaps, it’s worth trying to catch the sense and feel of what Chekhov actually intended. So, thank you, YSCP!”
Helen has stated this will be her last Chekhov, but out of the blue she
says: “Having done the other three, in some ways I’d like to do Three Sisters again.
Having learned things since I did it, I’d do it differently but more or less
with the same cast.
“You get into a rhythm of what these plays are like, and they still move
me every time. It’s like a labour of love doing them.
“But when I finish this one, I’d love to do an Arthur Miller one next.
The thing about Chekhov and Miller is that they’re universal. You don’t have to
modernise them for resonance. They will always resonate in their own period.”
A word in your shell like by the sea at Staithes: Cliff and The Seagull director Helen Wilson
York Settlement Community Players in Chekhov’s The Seagull, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 26 to March 7, 7.45pm plus 2pm matinee on February 29; no Sunday or Monday performances. Box office: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
Tickets for Helen Wilson’s Chekhov talk at 6pm tomorrow (January 29) at York Explore, Library Square, Museum Street, York, cost £5 at yorkexplore.org.
Quick question:
What’s the story behind seagull Cliff, Helen?
“He’s called Cliff and he lives in the window of the much frequented Dotty’s Vintage Tearoom in Staithes, collecting coins for the RNLI. He was allowed to commune with me for an hour or two and seemed to enjoy it!”
