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More Things To Do in York & beyond when ghosts light up gardens & dogs can be spotted. Hutch’s List No. 46, from The Press

Skylights: York band headline York Barbican for the first time tonight

FROM  Skylights to Ghosts After Dark, a fiesta of film to a musical dog show, Charles Hutchinson spots plenty to light up these November nights.

York gig of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm

ANTHEMIC York indie band Skylights play their biggest home-city gig to date this weekend with support from Serotones and Pennine Suite.

Guitarist Turnbull Smith says: ‘We’re absolutely over the moon to be headlining the Barbican. It’s always been a dream of ours to play here. So to headline will be the perfect way to finish a great year. Thanks to everyone for the support. It means the world and we’ll see you all there.” Box office update: Standing tickets still available at ticketmaster.co.uk.

Rob Rouse: Headlining Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, tonight

Comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, Rob Rouse, Peter Brush, Faizan Shan and Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 8pm

PEAK District comedian, television regular, Upstart Crow actor and self-help podcaster Rob Rouse, who trained as a geography teacher at the University of Sheffield, makes a rare York appearance with his hyperactive, loveable brand  of comedy.

Harrogate Comedian of the Year 2012 Peter Brush combines a slight, bespectacled frame and scruffy hair with quirky one-liners and original material, delivered in an amusingly awkward fashion. Manchester comic Faizan Shah’s material makes light of growing up in an immigrant household with the mental health challenges it brings. Organiser Damion Larkin hosts as ever. Box office: 01904 612940 or lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.

Artist CJP with his work The Majestic Oak at Art Of Protest Gallery, York

Exhibition of the week: From Little Acorns Grow Mighty Hopes: An Exhibition of Hand-drawn Natural Wonders, Art of Protest Gallery, Walmgate, York, until November 16

ART Of Protest is the first gallery to show CJP’s work The Majestic Oak in an exhibition of original and rare limited-edition artwork. Look out for the Art Of Protest York Special Edition, only available to be ordered until November 16, featuring the River Ouse-dwelling Tansy Beetle, an elusive insect featured on a resplendent mural near York railway station.

“This is an amazing opportunity to own a truly unique celebration of British fauna with a very special York twist,” says gallery owner Craig Humble. “CJP will add a Tansy Beetle to each piece, along with the gold leafing of the branches.”

Pride And Prejudice * (*Sort Of): Making merry mayhem with Jane Austen’s novel at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic

Theatrical high spirits of the week: Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), York Theatre Royal, November 4 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

MEN, money and microphones will be fought over in Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), the audacious retelling of a certain Jane Austen novel, where the stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to romance but it’s party time, so expect the all-female cast to deliver such emotionally turbulent pop gems as Young Hearts Run Free, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and You’re So Vain.

Writer Isobel McArthur directs this new production of her West End hit, Olivier Award winner for best comedy and Emerging Talent Award winner in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, now featuring University of York alumna Georgia Firth in the cast. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

On the spot: 101 Dalmatians The Musical takes up canine residence at the Grand Opera House from Tuesday. Picture: Johan Persson

Dog show of the week: 101 Dalmatians The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 5 to 9, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

KYM Marsh’s Cruella De Vil leads the cast for this musical tour of Dodie Smith’s canine caper 101 Dalmatians. Written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris, the show is re-imagined from the 2022 production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London. 

When fashionista Cruella De Vil plots to swipe all the Dalmatian puppies in town to create her fabulous new fur coat, trouble lies ahead for Pongo and Perdi and their litter of tail-wagging young pups in a story brought to stage life with puppetry, choreography, humorous songs and, yes, puppies. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. 

3 Missing 10 Hours, directed by Fanni Fazakas, showing in the Animation programme at Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024

York festival of the week: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York city centre, November 6 to 10, and UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO, Guildhall, York, November 7 to 9

THE BAFTA-Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival returns for its 14th year under the direction of Cherie Federico, this time integrating the tenth anniversary of York’s designation as Great Britain’s only UNESCO City of Media Arts. Fifteen venues will play host to 300 film screenings in 12 genres, Virtual Realty and Gaming labs, plus 60 panels, workshops and discussions. For the full programme and tickets, head to asff.co.uk.

The UNESCO EXPO will showcase the region’s creative sector, working in film production, games development, VFX (visual effects), publishing and design, with the chance to try out new projects and speak to creatives. Entry to the Guildhall is free.

Ghosts After Dark: New nocturnal complement to the Ghosts In The Gardens installation in York Museum Gardens

Nocturnal event of the week: Ghosts After Dark, York Museums Gardens, November 7 to 10, 6.30pm to 9.30pm; last entry, 8.30pm

YORK Museums Trust and the York BID present the inaugural Ghosts After Dark, showcasing York’s rich tapestry of historical figures with light, sound and storytellers for four nights only.

Ticketholders will have the  exclusive chance to experience York Museum Gardens like never before, by choosing their own path to explore 46 ghostly sculptures, hidden around the gardens and lit dynamically against an atmospheric background of smoke and sound. Box office: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/ghosts-after-dark/.

Rag’n’Bone Man: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer

Gig announcements of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, July 6, and Rag’n’Bone Man, July 11 2025

“I THINK I’ve got the best reggae band in the world,” says UB40 legend Ali Campbell, who last played Scarborough OAT in 2021. “They are all seasoned musicians, who have spent all their lives in professional bands, and I feel so confident with them.” Support acts will be Bitty McLean and Pato Banton.

Triple BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award winner Rag’n’Bone Man, alias Rory Graham,  will follow up his 2023 Scarborough OAT show with a return next summer in the wake of his third album, What Do You Believe In? entering the charts at number three last Friday. His special guest will be Elles Bailey. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.

Show announcement of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, April 14 to May 17 2025

Gary Oldman reflecting on his first steps in professional theatre in the York Theatre Royal dressing rooms on his March visit

OSCAR winner Gary Oldman will return to York Theatre Royal, where he began his career as a pantomime cat, to direct himself in Krapp’s Last Tape next spring: his first stage appearance since the late-1980s.

The April 14 to May 17 2025 production of Samuel Beckett’s one-act monodrama was set in motion when Slow Horses star Oldman paid a visit to the St Leonard’s Palace theatre in March, when he met chief executive Paul Crewes.

“When Gary visited us at the beginning of the year, it was fascinating hearing him recount stories of his time as a young man, in his first professional role on the York Theatre Royal stage.,” says Paul.

“In that context when we started to explore ideas, we realised Krapp’s Last Tape was the perfect project. I am very happy that audiences will have this unique opportunity to see Gary Oldman return to our stage in this brand new production.”

Making plans: Actor and director Gary Oldman in discussion with York Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes in the York Theatre Royal main house auditorium

Ticket prices start at £25, with priority booking for the York Theatre Royal Director’s Circle opening on November 6, YTR Members’ priority booking from November 11 and public booking on November 16, all from 1pm. To become a member and access priority booking, head to: https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/support-us/.

After graduating from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, Londoner Oldman started out in the repertory ranks at York Theatre Royal in 1979 in such plays as Privates On Parade and She Stoops To Conquer and playing the Cat in Berwick Kaler’s third York pantomime, Dick Whittington, that Christmas.

Dame Berwick later told the Guardian in an interview in 2018: “Gary has gone on to become one of our greatest screen actors but I’m afraid he was a bit of a lightweight when it came to pantomime.

“He kept fainting inside the costume. On at least three occasions I had to turn to the audience and say, ‘Oh dear, boys and girls, I think the poor pussy cat has gone to sleep’!”

Gary Oldman as the Cat with dame Berwick Kaler, centre, in the 1979-1980 York Theatre Royal pantomime Dick Whittington. Picture: York Theatre Royal

Oldman, now 66, posted on Instagram: “My professional public acting debut was on stage at the York Theatre Royal. York, for me, is the completion of a cycle. It is the ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home.

“The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.”

After cutting his teeth in York, New Cross-born Oldman went on to act at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, the Royal Court, London, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He then swapped theatre for film with break-our roles as Sid Vicious in Sid And Nancy (1986), Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1992) and Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).

He later played Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film franchise and Commissioner Jim Gordon in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, won the 2018 Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actor for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, and is now starring as obnoxious MI5 boss Jackson Lamb in the latest Apple+ series of British spy thriller Slow Horses.

Gary Oldman (third from the left in hat and glasses) in Privates On Parade at York Theatre Royal in 1979: one of his first professional performances after graduating from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, in Sidcup, Kent, with a BA in Acting. Picture: York Theatre Royal

Oldman has been considering going back to the stage for a long time. “I have never been far from the theatre and, in fact, have been discussing plays and my return to the theatre for nearly 30 years,” he posted.

What happens in Krapp’s Last Tape, Samuel Beckett at his most theatre of the absurd? Each year, on his birthday, Krapp records a new tape reflecting on the year gone by.

On his 69th birthday, Krapp, now a lonely man, is ready with a bottle of wine, a banana and his tape recorder. Listening back to a recording he made as a young man, Krapp must face the hopes of his past self. 

The melancholic, tragicomic role was premiered in 1958 by Patrick Magee and has been played by the likes of Albert Finney, Harold Pinter, John Hurt, Stephen Rea and Kenneth Allan Taylor, the long-running Nottingham Playhouse pantomime dame, writer and director, at York Theatre Royal in 2009.

Gary Oldman’s Cat in the 1979-1980 York Theatre Royal pantomime Dick Whittington. Picture: York Theatre Royal

Samuel Beckett (1906 – 1989): the back story

IRISH writer, dramatist and poet, specialising in theatre of the absurd. Wrote in English and French. Principal works for the stage included Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape and Waiting For Godot. Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

Gary Oldman: Further screen appearances

TINKER, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Academy Award and BAFTA nominations); Mank (Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations); Oppenheimer; The Book Of Eli; Meantime; The Firm;  Prick Up Your Ears; Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead; State Of Grace;  Romeo Is Bleeding; True Romance; Leon/The Professional; The Fifth Element; Immortal Beloved and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, among many others.

Worked with directors Stephen Frears, Oliver Stone, Frances Ford Coppola, Luc Besson, Alfonso Curon, Chris Nolan, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and Paulo Sorrentino.

Did you know?

IN 1995 Gary Oldman and producing partner Douglas Urbanski founded a production company, producing Oldman’s screenwriting and directorial debut, Nil By Mouth, winner of nine majot awards from 17 nominations.

Selected to open the main competition for the 1997 50th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, where Kathy Burke won Best Actress. The same year, Oldman won Channel Four Director’s Prize at Edinburgh International Film Festival, British Academy Award (shared with Douglas Urbanski) for Best Film and BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.

In Focus: Other Lives Productions in How To Be Brave, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm, and on tour

Livy Potter as Katy, left, and Alice Rose Palmer as mum Natalie in Louise Beech’s How To Be Brave

ON March 19 1943, just after midnight, Merchant Seaman Colin Armitage’s cargo ship, the Lulworth Hill,  was torpedoed by an Italian Navy submarine in the South Atlantic. He scrambled aboard a life raft. Fifty days later HMS Rapid rescued him.

Colin was the grandfather of How To Be Brave playwright Louise Beech. Sixty-four years after his ordeal, Louise’s daughter, Katy, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In order to distract her during insulin injections Louise began to tell the story of Colin’s bravery and determination to survive. 

The story inspiring ten-year-old Katy to be brave in the face of her diabetes is a true one. She has said that Grandad Colin’s experience made her determined to carry on when she wanted to give up and die: “If Grandad Colin can survive an ordeal like that, I can do anything. I can do these injections,” she said. And she has never faltered.

Director Kate Veysey with Rose’s seagull Gilbert

“We hope that by presenting this story we can inspired audiences in the East Riding and beyond,” says director Kate Veysey, a familiar name from both York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre and Next Door But One productions.

Scenes alternate between the life raft and Katy’s house in Hull as York actors Jacob Ward and Livy Potter take the roles of Colin Armitage and Rose (Katy, given a pseudonym), joined by Lex Stephenson as carpenter Ken Cooke, on the raft, Alice Rose Palmer as Natalie (alias mum Louise) and Alison Shaw as nurse Shelley. Age guidance: ten upwards (the show contains moderate bad language). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Lex Stephenson, as Ken Cooke, left, and Jacob Ward, as Colin Armitage, in Other Lives Productions’ How To Be Brave
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REVIEW: Bristol Old Vic in Wonder Boy, York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm tonight and 2.30pm tomorrow ****

Wonder-ful: Hilson Agbangbe’s Sonny in Wonder Boy. Picture: Steve Tanner

WHAT was the last play to capture the forlorn yet defiantly hopeful schoolroom experience so expressively? Willy Russell’s musical Our Day Out, with its busload of bored teens, springs to mind; John Godber’s Teechers even more so, especially in its Leavers 22 revamp.

In a new class of its own is Ross Willis’s Wonder Boy, an exploration of the power of communication with the aid of creative captioning, wherein the electronic screen captures every last repeated letter of young Sonny’s “Stammer Horror” experience.

At the helm of Bristol Old Vic’s touring production is Sally Cookson, whose unforgettable National Theatre staging of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre lit up the Grand Opera House with such vitality, imagination and innovation in 2017 that it won that year’s Hutch Award for Stage Production of the Year in York.

What her reading of Wonder Boy shares with her Jane Eyre is its focus on a central character’s struggles in a world seemingly set against them, taking up residence inside the head of the outsider so completely that we feel we are in there too.

In this case, 12-year-old Sonny (Hilson Agbangbe) lives with a stammer that leaves him silent and sullen at school. Words, not ideas, hopes or flights of fancy, evade him except when in the company of his imaginary friend, the combative word warrior Captain Chatter (Ciaran O’Breen).

The omnipresent caption and video design, courtesy of Limbic Cinema’s Tom Newell, charts every uttering of Sonny, whether fluent when kept inside that troubled head or when in conversation with rebellious, trouble-magnet friend Roshi (Naia Elliott-Spence), report-obsessed new head teacher Miss Fish (Meg Matthews at Wednesday’s matinee/Jessica Murrain) or his Mum (Matthews/Murrain again) in flashback scenes that trace her downward spiral.

Sonny expresses himself in his comic-book drawings, but inevitably bullying will spoil that well of creativity and expression in this struggling, downtrodden secondary school.

When the insensitive Miss Fish decides to impose the role of the Guard in Hamlet on him in the school play, Sonny finds an ally in the shape of unconventional deputy head Wainwright (Eva Scott), Wonder Boy’s answer to Godber’s new drama teacher in Teechers, Geoff Nixon.

Wainwright likes Ryvita nibbles, paper planes and Star Wars models; Wainwright dislikes Miss Fish’s methods, manner and form-filling excesses. For all her love of teaching, she will be the next to join the stampede of exits stage left from the teaching profession.

Willis writes with an anger and vigour, a frustration too, to match former teacher Godber – and that of Sonny too, although the boy’s determination to deliver his lines brings tears to the eye.

Cookson’s witty and wise direction combines with Willis’s astute writing to bring out the playful, scabrous humour as much as the pathos in Wonder Boy, not least in not shying away from the frank, “very sweary” language that adds even more impact.

Agbangbe and Scott, in particular, are terrific, their scenes together being the most moving your reviewer has seen on a York stage this year. Top marks too for Katie Sykes’s set and costume design, Laila Diallo’s Kapow-style movement direction and Benji Bower’s incidental compositions.

Wonder Boy is wondrous theatre, a lesson to us all in the importance of listening and breaking down barriers. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York & beyond, from fantastical tiger’s tale to ghostly goings-on. Hutch’s List No. 40, from Gazette & Herald

Balancing act: M6 Theatre Company in Mike Kenny’s A Tiger’s Tale at Helmsley Arts Centre

A TIGER adventure and a boy with a stammer, two ghost stories and a pioneering DJ are in the spotlight in Charles Hutchinson’s entertainment tips for the week ahead.

Ryedale children’s show of the week: M6 Theatre Company, A Tiger’s Tale, Helmsley Arts Centre, today, 2.30pm

ROCHDALE company M6 Theatre presents York playwright Mike Kenny’s fantastical, riotous adventure A Tiger’s Tale, the extraordinary story of Fenella, the Holmfirth Tiger, in a high-spirited balancing act of circus, puppetry, live music and song.

From a circus train in South Africa, to a steamboat on the Atlantic Ocean and onward to West Yorkshire, the ramshackle travelling troupe of Titch, Ma and Pa relates the unbelievable true story of a family of acrobats and their adopted tiger cub. Suitable for ages four to 11. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Hilson Agbangbe’s Sonny in Bristol Old Vic’s Wonder Boy, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Steve Tanner

Play of the week: Wonder Boy, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday; evenings, 7.30pm, tonight and Friday; matinees, 2pm, Wednesday, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday

OLIVIER Award winner Sally Cookson directs Bristol Old Vic’s touring production of Wonder Boy, Ross Willis’s exploration of the power of communication, told through the experiences of 12-year-old Sonny and his imaginary friend Captain Chatter.

Playful humour, dazzling visuals and thrilling original music combine in this innovative show that uses live creative captioning on stage throughout as Sonny, who lives with a stammer, must find a way to be heard in a world where language is power. When cast in a school production of Hamlet by the head teacher, he discovers the real heroes are closer than he thinks. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Victoria Delaney as Mrs Morland and Tony Froud as Mr Morland in York Actors Collective’s production of J M Barrie’s Mary Rose at York Theatre Royal Studio. Picture: Clive Millard

Theatre Royal debut of the week: York Actors Collective in Mary Rose, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight to Saturday, 7.45pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees

YORK Actors Collective make their York Theatre Royal debut with a revival of Peter Pan and Quality Street playwright J M Barrie’s Mary Rose, adapted and directed by Angie Millard.

“Barrie uses dimensions of time to great effect,” she says. “His treatment of love, loss and unwavering hope draws in an audience and gives it universality. I’ve adapted the script to appeal to modern thinking but his themes are intact. The strange and ghostly atmosphere fits beautifully into our autumn slot, which includes Halloween and is a time for considering other worldliness.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Helmsley company Clap Trap Theatre in the ghost story The Room Upstairs at Helmsley Arts Centre

Haunted drama for Halloween week: Clap Trap Theatre in The Room Upstairs, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

WHEN a young woman answers an advertisement for a trusted house-sitter, she arrives at a beautiful house in the middle of nowhere. It should be the perfect job but with one proviso. Please do not go into the room upstairs.

A mysterious cloaked figure narrates and commentates as two young people strive to unravel the long-held mystery of a haunted house in this new 55-minute black comedy by BAFTA-nominated television writer Tom Needham, performed by Cal Stockbridge, Florrie Stockbridge and Helmsley Arts Centre artistic director and Youth Theatre director Natasha Jones. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Skylights: York band headline York Barbican for the first time this weekend

York gig of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, Saturday, doors 7pm

ANTHEMIC York indie band Skylights play their biggest home-city gig to date this weekend with support from Serotones and Pennine Suite.

Guitarist Turnbull Smith says: ‘We’re absolutely over the moon to be headlining the Barbican. It’s always been a dream of ours to play here. So to headline will be the perfect way to finish a great year. Thanks to everyone for the support. It means the world and we’ll see you all there.” Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.

Rob Rouse: Headlining Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at The Basement. Picture: Andy Hollingworth

Comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, Rob Rouse, Peter Brush, Faizan Shan and Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Saturday, 8pm

PEAK District comedian, television regular, Upstart Crow actor and self-help podcaster Rob Rouse, who trained as a geography teacher at the University of Sheffield, makes a rare York appearance with his hyperactive, loveable brand  of comedy.

Harrogate Comedian of the Year 2012 Peter Brush combines a slight, bespectacled frame and scruffy hair with quirky one-liners and original material, delivered in an amusingly awkward fashion. Manchester comic Faizan Shah’s material makes light of growing up in an immigrant household with the mental health challenges it brings. Organiser Damion Larkin hosts as ever. Box office: 01904 612940 or lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.

Andy Kershaw: “Two-hour explosion of irresistible tropical dance music” at Milton Rooms, Malton

Declaring war on musical mediocrity: Andy Kershaw’s African, Caribbean & Latin Dance Night, Milton Rooms, Malton, November 8, 8pm

ANDY Kershaw, DJ pioneer, evangelist and Old Grey Whistle Test presenter, has brought global music to British audiences over more than three decades of programmes on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 3. His obsession with finding new music has resulted in a 7.5 ton record collection garnered from visits to 97 countries in pursuit of new and exciting sounds.

His one-man war on musical mediocrity promises a two-hour explosion of irresistible tropical dance music. Folk-infused York buskers and party, pub and festival covers’ band Hyde Family Jam support. Box office: 01653 692240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Rag’n’Bone Man: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer

Gig announcements of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, July 6, and Rag’n’Bone Man, July 11 2025

“I THINK I’ve got the best reggae band in the world,” says UB40 legend Ali Campbell, who last played Scarborough OAT in 2021. “They are all seasoned musicians, who have spent all their lives in professional bands, and I feel so confident with them.” Support acts will be Bitty McLean and Pato Banton.

Triple BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award winner Rag’n’Bone Man, alias Rory Graham,  will follow up his 2023 Scarborough OAT show with a return next summer in the wake of his third album, What Do You Believe In? entering the charts at number three last Friday. His special guest will be Elles Bailey. Tickets for both shows go on sale at 9am on Friday at ticketmaster.co.uk.

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‘The play is about what happens when a person communicates differently and the challenges they face,’ says Wonder Boy director Sally Cookson

Sally Cookson, director of Wonder Boy

OLIVIER Award winner Sally Cookson directs Bristol Old Vic’s production of Wonder Boy, Ross Willis’s exploration of the power of communication, on tour at York Theatre Royal from tonight to Saturday.

Playful humour, dazzling visuals and thrilling original music combine in this innovative show that uses live creative captioning on stage throughout as 12-year-old Sonny, who lives with a stammer, must find a way to be heard in a world where language is power, with the aid of his imaginary friend Captain Chatter.

When cast in a school production of Hamlet by the head teacher, Sonny discovers the real heroes are closer than he thinks.

Here Sally discusses the wonders of Wonder Boy.

How did your production of Wonder Boy come to fruition?

“I was invited to a new writing festival at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School pre-pandemic in which Ross Willis’s play was presented. It jumped out at me as a piece of unique writing, and I was attracted to the way Ross combined an absurd world with the very real. It made me laugh and cry.

“I contacted him and went to see his production of Wolfie at Theatre 503 [in Battersea, London], which I loved. Tom Morris [the then artistic director of Bristol Old Vic] agreed to programme Wonder Boy the following year at Bristol Old Vic but that got postponed because of Covid.

“Ross and I got to know each other during the pandemic via delightful phone calls where we’d just talk about anything and everything. Chatting with Ross is like being in one of his plays. Wonder Boy finally got performed in 2022, a couple of years later than intended, but by which time we’d had a chance to dream up ideas together about the show.

Hilson Agbangbe as Sonny in Bristol Old Vic’s Wonder Boy. Picture: Steve Tanner

In the play, Ross Willis writes movingly about the frustrations that can come with having a stammer. How did you bring that into the structure of the show?

“This is at the heart of the piece. Ross calls it the great inner operatic pain that comes not being able to be seen or express yourself. It was essential that we found a way of bringing all elements of the production together to illustrate and highlight Sonny’s plight.

“Music is especially important in helping with this and Benji Bower’s composition manages to get right inside the character’s head. But casting an actor who is able to portray the character’s trauma is key.

“Understanding what causes Sonny to behave in the way he does and identify every moment of his thought process is vital. Some of Sonny’s darkest moments happen when there is no text, so being able to identify how his pain manifests physically is important too.

“Ross has written it into the structure of the show, those big absurd moments when Shakespeare comes to life to torment Sonny or when vowels and letters attack him are all moments that tap into his inner operatic pain.”

 How is creative captioning used in the show?

“The play is about what happens when a person communicates differently and the challenges they face when fluent speech is the expected societal norm. It felt entirely natural to include creative captions as part of the overall design of the show to tap into the major theme of communication.

“Creative captioning involves incorporating the entire text into the world of the play. We don’t just display the words on a small digital strip positioned either to the left or right of the stage; we ensure that all the words spoken are visually central to the piece. 

Designed by Tom Newell, the creative captions provide another creative layer and are not only an access tool for deaf, deafened or hard of hearing people but an important part of the imaginative world created in the play.”

Hilson Agbangbe’s Sonny with his imaginary friend, Ciaran O’Breen’s Captain Chatter. Picture: Steve Tanner

 Wonder Boy deals with mental health issues, such as suicide. Can theatre do that particularly well?

“My experience is that theatre is a wonderful place to interrogate the stuff that frightens us as humans. And to ask those questions safely in a rehearsal room, and to share that with an audience is what theatre does best.

“In Wonder Boy the protagonist Sonny experiences complicated feelings of guilt, shame, grief and anger as a result of his mother’s death by suicide. A lot of plays written for young people shy away from themes such as this, but Ross approaches the subject with honesty and integrity. He understands what young people endure and gives voice to their suffering in an imaginative way.

“Theatre is a space to gather together to explore human behaviour, and hopefully come away with a bit more understanding of why we do the things we do.”

 Wonder Boy is a play for young people – and very “sweary” too. Discuss…

 “Oh, we had so many discussions about the ‘sweariness’. It has taken us around and about and back to where we started, which is why we’ve changed very little of it. Ross is quite right – most young people swear a lot. It has become part of the way they communicate.

Some adults get quite upset about the amount of swearing in the show; no young people do. And the play really is for teenagers. Getting teenagers into the theatre is very difficult, and I think Ross has absolutely found a way of engaging them – by telling a beautiful and important story and using an extreme version of the language they identify with.

A scene from Bristol Old Vic’s touring production of Wonder Boy

This show illustrates the impact of art, and theatre in particular, on young people, especially those who experiencing difficulties. Are you passionate about this?

“Yes. That’s what helped me. I hated school. I was really miserable. And my mum sent me to the local youth theatre. That’s where my journey into the arts started. And it’s where I suddenly felt valued, and where I had a voice, so I feel very strongly about it.

And now more than ever – with a curriculum starved of the arts (hopefully this will soon change) – theatre is essential in engaging young people’s imaginations and allowing them space to dream and think big.”

  What can theatre give to a young person who is struggling to be heard or to find a voice?

“So many things. It’s not just about encouraging young people to work in the arts. By joining a youth theatre, being part of an audience regularly, partaking in drama, it can make you feel more connected, less alone.

“It can inspire your imagination, make you think bigger, think differently; it can encourage empathy by helping you understand why other people behave like they do. It can tap into your own artistic talents, and help you find things out about yourself that you never knew you had. It can also just be a good laugh. The list is endless.”

Bristol Old Vic presents Wonder Boy, York Theatre Royal, tonight until Saturday; evenings, 7.30pm, tonight, tomorrow and Friday; matinees, 2pm, Wednesday, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 / yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Flashback

Nadia Clifford as Jane Eyre in the National Theatre’s Jane Eyre, directed by Sally Cookson

IN the 2017 Hutch Awards, Sally Cookson’s National Theatre staging of Jane Eyre, performed on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, won Stage Production of the Year in York made outside York.

“YOU will not see a better theatre show in York this year, and you won’t have seen a better theatre show in York since The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time”. So The York Press review stated in May that year.

How true that proved to be. Cookson’s devised production of vivid, vital imagination brought Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre back to Yorkshire with breathtaking results.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when a rebellious sea dog makes the news. Hutch’s List No. 44, from The Press

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

FROM a motley crew all at sea to Eighties’ pop and rock stars, a beehive buzz of a campaigning American teen to a boy with a stammer, Charles Hutchinson’s week promises both adventure and misadventure.

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

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

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

Ayana Beatrice Poblete and Reggie Challenger in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ Songs For A New World

Song cycle of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions presents: Songs For A New World, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm  

ON the heels of last week’s The Last Five Years, Black Sheep Theatre perform another Jason Robert Brown work, 1995’s Songs For A New World.

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

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

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

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

Chris (vocals, guitar, banjo, dulcimer and percussion) and Julie (vocals, piano, guitar, mandolin and bouzouki) released their 13th studio album, Days Like These, on Fat Cat Records last month. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

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

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

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

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

Chrissie Hynde: Fronting The Pretenders at a sold-out York Barbican on Thursday

What an Eighties’ week at York Barbican: The Cult, Tuesday, sold out; Adam Ant, AntMusic 2024, Wednesday, limited ticket availability; The Pretenders, Thursday, sold out

THE Cult’s 8424: 40th Anniversary Tour brings Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy’s band to York with their pioneering fusion of post-punk, hard rock, and experimentalism. Pop icon Adam Ant performs his chart-topping hits and personal favourites in his AntMusic 2024 show on his return to the Barbican.

Chrissie Hynde leads The Pretenders in York, one of three additions to their extended 2024 tour,  combining new tracks with classics such as Brass In Pocket and Back On The Chain Gang. Last year they released their 12th studio album, Relentless. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Katie Brice’s Tracy Turnblad and Neil Hurst’s Edna Turnblad in Hairspray The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

Musical of the week: Hairspray, Grand Opera House, York, October 28 to November 2, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

BASED on cult filmmaker John Waters’ 1988 American movie, Hairspray The Musical follows the progress of  heroine Tracy Turnblad, with her  big hair, big heart and big dreams to dance her way on to national television and into the heart of teen idol Link Larkin.

When Tracy (Katie Brice/Scarborough actress Alexandra Emerson-Kirby in her professional debut) becomes a local star, she uses her newfound fame to fight for liberation, tolerance, and interracial unity in Baltimore. Look out for Yorkshireman Neil Hurst as Tracy’s mum, Edna, and Strictly Come Dancing’s Joanne Clifton as villainous Velma Von Tussle. Box office: atgtickets.com/York.

Ciaran O’Breen as Captain Chatter and Hilson Agbangbe as Sonny in Wonder Boy, on tour at York Theatre Royal

Children’s story of the week: Wonder Boy, York Theatre Royal, October 29 to November 2; evenings, 7.30pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday; matinees, 2pm, Wednesday, Thursday; 2.30pm, next Saturday

OLIVIER Award winner Sally Cookson directs Bristol Old Vic’s touring production of Wonder Boy, Ross Willis’s exploration of the power of communication, told through the experiences of 12-year-old Sonny and his imaginary friend Captain Chatter.

Playful humour, dazzling visuals and thrilling original music combine in this innovative show that uses live creative captioning on stage throughout as Sonny, who lives with a stammer, must find a way to be heard in a world where language is power. When cast in a school production of Hamlet by the head teacher, he discovers the real heroes are closer than he thinks. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Victoria Delaney and Tony Froud in J M Barrie’s Mary Rose, next week’s production by York Actors Collective. Picture: Clive Millard

Theatre Royal debut of the week: York Actors Collective in Mary Rose, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 30 to November 2,  7.45pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees

YORK Actors Collective make their York Theatre Royal debut with a revival of Peter Pan and Quality Street playwright J M Barrie’s Mary Rose, adapted and directed by Angie Millard.

“Barrie uses dimensions of time to great effect,” she says. “His treatment of love, loss and unwavering hope draws in an audience and gives it universality. I’ve adapted the script to appeal to modern thinking but his themes are intact. The strange and ghostly atmosphere fits beautifully into our autumn slot, which includes Halloween and is a time for considering other worldliness.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York & beyond when two plays go to sea & AI comes to dance. Hutch’s List No. 39, from Gazette & Herald

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pat Fulgoni Blues Experience: Returning to Milton Rooms, Malton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when disproving ‘rotten state of modern Britain’. Hutch’s List No. 43, from The Press

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Songs For A New World cast member Rachel Higgs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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REVIEW: Rebus: A Game Called Malice, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday ****

Gray O’Brien as “retired” inspector John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice

SCOTTISH crime author Sir Ian Rankin has been writing about “this guy Rebus” since 1985.

The first book was published in 1987; the latest, Midnight And Blue, arrived last Thursday. “I’ve spent more than half my life with him. I still don’t quite know what makes him tick. I keep writing about him to get to the core of his identity,” he says.

Rankin has harboured thoughts of bumping off his gnarly Edinburgh inspector, but he reckons Rebus will tell him when it’s time to hand in his badge. Not this year, it would seem, what with the BBC television series, then the play and the book.

It turns out Rebus has done the quitting bit already after 30 years in A Game Called Malice. He has retired from Police Scotland, he tells his fellow guests at a swanky dinner party in Heriot Row, one of those plush, high-ceiling Edinburgh town houses full of “art, books and fancy pictures”. Terry Parsons’ stylish design more than does it justice, filled with paintings.

Brought to the party by lawyer Stephanie Jeffries (Abigail Thaw, a familiar face from Endeavour), Gray O’Brien’s John Rebus looks a little incongruous at such a gathering.

Standing at the back, observing, listening, suited and booted but tie undone, he is reading the room, not the room reading him, he later tells us, in one of those waspish, whiplash monologues that would be a voiceover on screen but has the added impact of breaking theatre’s fourth wall here.

In the kitchen, never seen, is a fancy-dan chef, hired for the night to let party hostess Harriet Godwin (Teresa Banham) focus on hosting the murder mystery game she has invented. It turns out, of course it does, that in playing the game, the guests expose secrets, fallible character traits, of their own.

Rebus is the only one who never leaves the room at any point, for a fag, a phonecall or whatever, so when casino boss Paul Godwin (Neil McKinven) discovers a bloodied body in an en-suite bathroom, while having a nosey upstairs, all fall under Rebus’s suspicion, as he laconically returns to detective duty with that familiarly unnerving manner.

Who’s dead? That would be telling, and besides, Rankin and co-writer Simon Reade do their stage business so briskly, so smartly, we are all heading home by 9.15pm, case solved, Rebus’s droll epilogue sending us on our way.

The murderer? Was it Harriet, always on edge, or Stephanie, whose past is not without unfortunate blemish? Or Godwin, one of those business types who gives to charity, likes to wear bespoke suits that speak far too loudly, and skates very close to the edge of the law.

Or maybe Godwin’s savvy young belle (Jade Kennedy), an influencer on social media, forever tapping away, who may run too close to the wind. Or Harriet’s partner, Jack Fleming (Billy Hartman), no replacement for late husband Callum, and doesn’t he know it.

Loveday Ingram’s direction, playful, dry witted and suspenseful, matches the pace, humour and intrigue of Rankin and Read’s dialogue, her cast delivering good performances all round.

O’Brien, who caught the eye as Juror 7 in Twelve Angry Men at the Grand Opera House earlier this year, has exactly the right hangdog air for Rebus, always stirring, playing his own game by his own rules in pursuit of the truth. Welcome back; that retirement was never going to last

Rebus: A Game Called Malice, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

UPDATE, 18/10/2024: Author Ian Rankin will take part in Friday’s post-show discussion with company members. Earlier in the day, sometime between 3pm and 6pm, he will be popping into Criminally Good Books, in Colliergate, to promote his October 10 novel, Midnight And Blue.  

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when seeking that lovely jubbly feeling. Hutch’s List No. 42, from The Press, York

Lethal tea maker: The Black Widow at York Dungeon

DEL Boy in a musical, a Dungeon murderess, a Greek teen tragedy and a top-Rankin Scottish detective are well worth investigating, advises Charles Hutchinson.   

New attraction of the week: The Black Widow, York Dungeon, Clifford Street, York, from today, from 10am

THIS Hallowe’en season’s new show at York Dungeon opens today. Be prepared to encounter the grim tale of Britain’s first female serial killer: Mary Ann Cotton.

A north easterner with a propensity for lacing tea with a drop of arsenic, the Black Widow was convicted of only one murder but is believed to have killed many others, including 11 of her 13 children, and three of her four husbands. Box office: thedungeons.com/york/tickets-passes/. Pre-booking is essential.

Jude Kelly: Striving for a gender-equal world in The WOW Show

The WOW factor: The WOW Show with Jude Kelly, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow, 7.30pm

WOMEN of the World founder, chief executive officer and theatre director Jude Kelly CBE was director of West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, from 1990 to 2002 and London’s Southbank Centre from 2006 to 2018 and set up the WOW Foundation charity in 2010 to achieve a gender-equal world.

In an evening of optimism, determination and laughter, she explores “our often exasperating and confusing journey towards gender equity, covering everything from money, sex, race, food, and ageing”. Expect personal anecdotes, guests and big ideas. “The message is: If you are a woman or you know a woman, please show up!” says Jude. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Sam Lupton: Playing Del Boy in Only Fools And Horses The Musical at the Grand Opera House, York

“Plonker” musical of the week: Only Fools And Horses The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, October 14 to 19, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

BASED on John Sullivan’s long-running BBC One series, his son Jim Sullivan and comedy treasure Paul Whitehouse’s West End hit, Only Fools And Horses The Musical, combines 20 songs with an ingenious script.

“Join us as we take a trip back in time to 1989, where it’s all kicking off in Peckham,” reads the 2024-25 tour invitation. “While the yuppie invasion of London is in full swing, love is in the air as Del Boy sets out on the rocky road to find his soul mate, Rodney and Cassandra prepare to say ‘I do’, and even Trigger is gearing up for a date (with a person!). Meanwhile, Boycie and Marlene give parenthood one final shot and Grandad takes stock of his life and decides the time has finally arrived to get his piles sorted.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Gray O’Brien in the role of Inspector John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Nobby Clark

Thriller of the week: Rebus: A Game Called Malice, York Theatre Royal, October 15 to 19, 7.30pm; 2pm, Wednesday, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday

SCOTTISH crime writer Ian Rankin’s much-loved detective, John Rebus, takes to the stage in a new storyco-written with Simon Reade. Gray O’Brien, from Coronation Street, Casualty and Peak Practice, plays Rebus in a cast also featuring Abigail Thaw and Billy Hartman.

When a splendid Edinburgh mansion dinner party concludes with a murder mystery game, suddenly a murder needs to be solved. However, guests have secrets of their own. Among them is Inspector John Rebus, but is he Is playing an alternative game, one to which only he knows the rules? Rankin will attend the October 18 post-show discussion with the cast. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Chris Mooney and Helen Spencer: Playing lovers with opposite takes on their relationship in The Last Five Years at the NCEM, York. Picture: Simon Trow

Debut of the week: Wharfemede Productions & Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Last Five Years, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, October 17 to 19, 7.45pm

HELEN Spencer and Nick Sephton launch their new York company, Wharfemede Productions, in tandem with Black Sheep Theatre Productions, by staging The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown’s musical story of two New Yorkers, rising novelist Jamie Wellerstein and struggling actress Cathy Hiatt, who fall in and out of love over the course of five years.

Combining only two cast members, York Theatre scene luminaries Chris Mooney and Spencer, with a small band, expect an intimate and emotive evening of frank storytelling and gorgeous music. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/wharfemede-productions-ltd.

Alexander Flanagan-Wright in Helios, a modern take on an Ancient Greek myth, performed under the Great Hall dome at Castle Howard

Theatrical event of the week: Wright & Grainger in Helios, The Great Hall, Castle Howard, near York, October 17, 5pm and 7.30pm

A LAD lives halfway up an historic hill. A teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car. A boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky. In a play about the son of the god of the sun, Helios transplants the Ancient Greek tale into a modern-day myth wound round 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,” says writer-performer Alexander Flanagan-Wright, who presents his delicate tale with a tape-player beneath the Great Hall dome’s mural, painted by 18th century Venetian painter Antonio Pelligrini, whose depiction of the Fall of Phaeton was the thematic inspiration behind Helios. Box office: castlehoward.co.uk.

Squeeze: 50th anniversary celebrations at York Barbican

Recommended but sold out already: Squeeze, York Barbican, October 18, doors 7pm

DEPTFORD’S answer to The Beatles mark their 50th anniversary as Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook manage to Squeeze in hit after hit, like pulling musses from a shell. Don’t miss the support act, one Badly Drawn Boy.  

Strictly between us: Husband-and-wife dancers Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara look forward to A Night To Remember at York Barbican next June

Show announcement of the week: Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara: A Night To Remember, York Barbican, June 1 2025

STRICTLY Come Dancing favourites Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara – married since 2017 – will be touring next year with A Night To Remember, featuring an ensemble of “some of the UK’s very best dancers and singers”.

 Aljaž, partnering Tasha Ghouri in the 2024 series, and It takes Two presenter Janette will “perform stunning routines to an eclectic array of music”, spanning the Great American songbook through to modern-day classics, backed by their own big band, fronted by boogie- woogie star Tom Seal. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/aljaz-and-janette-a-night-to-remember.

In Focus: Black Treacle Theatre in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Oct 15 to 19

Superintendent Curry (Chris Pomfrett) and DI Daisy (Adam Sowter) are pushed to
the edge by The Maniac (Andrew Isherwood), when they are surprised in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist. Picture: John Saunders

BENT police and politics come under fire in York company Black Treacle Theatre’s provocative production of Dario Fo’s uproarious farce Accidental Death Of An Anarchist next week.

In a new adaptation by Tom Basden, creator of Plebs and Here We Go, the setting is updated to the rotten state of present-day Britain.

The satirical play is set in a police station where a suspect has “accidentally” fallen to his death, but did he jump or was he pushed? As the police attempt to avoid yet another scandal, a mysterious imposter (the Maniac) is arrested and brought in for questioning.

Seizing the chance to put on a show, he leads the officers in an ever-more ridiculous reconstruction of their official account, exposing their cover-ups, corruption and (in)competence.

The original 1970 Italian farce by Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo and Franca Rame was based on the real-life case of an anarchist suspected of a bombing, who plunged to his death from a Milan police station in suspicious circumstances and was later exonerated. Now comes the British re-boot.

The Maniac (Andrew Isherwood) peruses the Anarchist’s case file as Inspector
Burton (Paul Osborne) interrupts him

Director Jim Paterson says: “I’m really excited to bring this new adaptation of one of my favourite plays to York. Dario Fo was a master of using comedy to talk about the social and political issues of the day – particularly state corruption and hypocrisy.

“What Tom Basden’s version does brilliantly is bring the plot bang up to date in both setting and references, taking in police scandals and political issues of recent years – as well as packing it full of hilariousjokes! It’s fast, furious and funny, and I can’t wait for opening night.”

Lead actor Andrew Isherwood says: “Playing the Maniac, I get the opportunity to play multiple roles, with a variety of voices, which is always fun for me as I really enjoy getting the chance to play around, have some fun and indulge a little bit, which I don’t normally get to express in the same show.

“I think audiences will get a real kick out of the bizarre nature of this show, with all its twists and turns and bitingly satirical elements woven in, all performed by a brilliantly talented cast!”

PC Joseph (Guy Wilson) attempts to keep a record of the increasingly complex story being spun in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist. Picture: John Saunders

Black Treacle Theatre in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist,Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 15 to 19, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee.Box office:  https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. Running time: Two hours 15 minutes, including interval.  

In the cast will be: The Maniac – Andrew Isherwood; Inspector Burton – Paul Osborne; DI Daisy – Adam Sowter; PC Joseph – Guy Wilson; Superintendent – Chris Pomfrett; Fi Phelan/PC Jackson – Jess Murray.

Production team: Director, Jim Paterson; lighting designer, Adam Kirkwood; set designer, Richard Hampton; costume/props, Maggie Smales.

Did you know?

Black Treacle Theatre’s past productions were: Constellations (March 2022), Iphigenia In Splott (March 2023) and White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (November 2023), all at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.

Last Chance To See: Jack Ashton starring in Little Women at York Theatre Royal, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Jack Ashton as Professor Bhaer in Little Women at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlotte Graham

STARRING in a much-loved television series can be a boon or a bother for an actor who becomes identified with a particular character. Directors may be reluctant to offer different sorts of role.

Happily, Jack Ashton, best known as the Reverend Tom Hereward in BBC One’s Sunday night staple Call The Midwife, has escaped being typecast. So much so that in York Theatre Royal’s production of Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age classic Little Women, he is playing not one but two very contrasting characters.

The link is that both are suitors of the titular Little Women – John Brooke and Professor Bhaer, the love interests for Meg and Jo March. Not that Jack downplays the problems of leaving Call The Midwife after five years as the vicar of Poplar in the series set in an East End Anglican convent in the late 1950s and 1960s.

“It was difficult, more difficult than I thought,” he admits. “It was hard for a few years for my agent to get me seen for something. If you’re known as a particular character, it can be hard to do something that’s opposite to that and challenge yourself, which is what you want to be as an actor.”

In the past Jack has said that Call The Midwife changed his life, a reference to becoming a father – of Wren, six, and Lark, two – through his relationship with co-star Helen George. “It was a lovely time in my life,” he says. So much so that the last time he acted in York, in Strangers On the Train at the Grand Opera House in March 2018, newly-born Wren came on tour with them.

Jack Ashton’s John Brooke and Ainy Medina’s Meg March in Little Women, adapted by Anne-Marie Casey, at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Juliet Forster’s production of Little Women at York Theatre Royal, where he has performed since his early days as an actor, certainly offers the chance to do something different: two different characters in one show.

One of them, Professor Bhaer, requires a German accent, necessitating Jack to work with a voice coach.

He has not read Little Women, although he has seen Great Gerwig’s 2019 film version, and coincidentally has just finished working with Saoirse Ronan, who played burgeoning writer Jo March in the American movie.

While he has not worked previously with any of the Little Women cast members, he has done so with director Juliet Forster, York Theatre Royal’s creative director.

She directed him in productions that have punctuate his life, going from a young man fresh out of drama school in 2006 to present-day leading man, appearing in Twelfth Night and the Studio double bill of Escaping Alice and End Of Desire, as well as The Guinea Pig Club and The Homecoming under former artistic director Damain Cruden’s direction.

Jack Ashton rehearsing the role of Professor Bhaer in Little Women. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

York remains one of his favourite places. “It’s such a great city. I love coming back, it’s a no-brainer when that kind of offer, like Little Women, comes along,” says Jack.

“I have really good friends in York and I’ve befriended Rita and Paul, the original people on the digs list. I got so lucky because I stayed with them the first time and have continued to stay with them every time since.”

He is realistic about the pitfalls of being an actor. “Sometimes people think an actor’s life is quite glamorous. We just audition and audition, and sometimes people say ‘yes, we want you’. Most of the time they say, ‘no thank you very much’.”

He has several projects waiting to be seen, including Jonatan Etzler’s satirical comedy Bad Apples – the one with Saoirse Ronan – and a small role in Lockerbie, a Sky drama series about one man’s battle to learn the truth about the Pan Am Flight 103 bomb explosion over the Scottish town on December 21 1988. He continues to play Harry Chilcott in BBC Radio 4’s long-running series The Archers too.

Returning to the topic of Little Women, does he have any sisters? “Two older sisters,” he replies. “I can definitely relate to not being able to get a word in edgeways.”

Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

“We just audition and audition, and sometimes people say ‘yes, we want you’. Most of the time they say, ‘no thank you very much’,” says actor Jack Ashton

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‘The real Rebus bounces back’ as Gray O’Brien plays Scottish detective in new Ian Rankin thriller at York Theatre Royal

Gray O’Brien as Inspector John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Nobby Clark

GRAY O’Brien makes his second stage appearance in York in 2024 next week, following up his Juror 10 in Twelve Angry Men at the Grand Opera House in May with Inspector John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice at York Theatre Royal.

Ian Rankin’s Scottish detective has been portrayed on stage, radio, television and online by such actors as Ken Scott, Brian Cox, Charles Lawson, John Hannah and, in six BBC One episodes in May and June this year, by Richard Rankin (no relation).

They have done so with varying degrees of success. John Hannah considered himself “miscast”, handing over to a more downbeat Ken Scott in the ITV series. Richard Rankin, the latest TV incarnation and younger than some of his predecessors, has met with approval.

O’Brien has not read the Rebus books, considering the thriller series to be “one of those things you get into or which just pass you by”, whereas devotees will be rushing out to acquire Rankin’s 25th detective novel, Midnight And Blue, published by Orion today (10/10/2024).

O’Brien has, however, spoken at length with the author, who says different actors bring out different aspects of Rebus, helping him to learn more about the character for the next book.

Gray O’Brien’s Juror 10, left, with Michael Greco’s Juror 7 in Twelve Angry Men at the Grand Opera House, York, in May. Picture: Jack Merriman

As he prepared to play Rebus, O’Brien asked the writer which books he should read to gain an insight into the character. Rankin’s reply came as a surprise. “He said, ‘don’t read them, you don’t need to, because this man is completely on his own. He’s now at a certain age where he’s retired. What’s been in the past is the past’,” O’Brien recalls.

In the new play, the retired detective finds himself at a posh Edinburgh dinner party where the guests play a murder mystery game. “He’s sitting there, a fish out of water thinking, ‘what the heck have I got myself into?’,” says O’Brien. “Then we discover why he’s really there, something happens, and the real Rebus bounces back.”

O’Brien likes how the whodunnit aspect was handled by Rankin, who co-wrote the play with Simon Reade after penning the first draft. The genre demands a denouement where the suspects are gathered together and the guilty party is exposed. “But we do it differently in this play,” he says, without giving too much away.

Given that his books are read worldwide, Rankin was keen to write a play that could be staged around the globe – another reason he wanted no constraints on the portrayal of the stage Rebus.

“It’s not Ken Stott’s Rebus or John Hannah’s Rebus. Your reading of the book is different to my reading of the book,” O’Brien says. “You read something like Lord Of The Rings or Game Of Thrones and you have the characters very much set in your head. Then you see it televised and go, ‘that’s the character I’m seeing in my head’.

Writer Ian Rankin, in the rehearsal room, reading the script for Rebus: A Game Called Malice. Picture: Jonathan Phang

“I can’t mimic or can’t try to copy someone else’s Rebus because we’re all made up completely differently. I can’t hold myself the way Ken Stott holds himself. We’re all different shapes, different sizes, we’re educated differently, we’re from different regions.”

Rebus’s accent was important to O’Brien, who grew up in Ayreshire, Rebus hails from Fife. Both men have Scottish accents but not necessarily the same-sounding accent. The Glasgow-born actor was keen to pay homage to the Edinburgh accent when the production played the Festival Theatre there last month and not resort to a generic Scottish accent.

“To English listeners it probably won’t matter as much,” he says. “Some people thought I was crazy doing an Edinburgh accent because I’m Scottish and I have a Scottish accent. I found the rhythms difficult because it’s a bit like getting someone from Milwaukee to do a Minnesota accent. They’re quite different. The Edinburgh vowel sounds and the line endings are completely different from the West Coast of Scotland.”

O’Brien has played major TV roles as Tony Gordon in Coronation Street, Richard McCaid in Casualty and Dr Tom Deneley in Peak Practice, but theatre remains an essential part of his work, whether touring in the 1954 courtroom drama Twelve Angry Men or starring alongside Dallas star Patrick Duffy in the American caper Catch Me If You Can.

“Theatre is a necessity because TV work stops and sometimes it doesn’t stop forever but there are certainly long hiatuses,” he says. “New people come into TV. Casting directors who championed you leave, the new ones don’t know you, and young people come in and don’t know my work. So you can get overlooked. Many careers crash and burn.

“I can’t mimic or can’t try to copy someone else’s Rebus because we’re all made up completely differently,” says Gray O’Brien

“I’ve been very, very lucky with the loyalty of [the late] producer Bill Kenwright. He’s always wanted me on stage if I’m available. Pretty much every year I get asked to do one of these stage tours. I jump at the challenge each time.”

O’Brien takes the responsibility of touring theatre seriously. “People are paying their hard- earned cash to come and have an experience in theatre. I would always encourage people to come and see a live play,” he says. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s always a jeopardy moment on stage.

“It could be performance 100 or performance 24 where things don’t go fully as
expected. Maybe an actor tries something slightly different and says a line with a
different inflection. It can change the dynamic of the piece and it’s very exciting.”

What is the worst thing to have befallen him on stage? “Drying is terrible, just literally dropping the ball for half a second,” he says, referring to forgetting lines. “People don’t realise the concentration that’s involved in a play. You’ve got to be completely on the moment and be listening to everything.

“You cannot for a second think, ‘I wonder if I should have fish fingers tonight’. As soon as that happens you’releft with a cue but don’t know what you’re saying. That happens all the time and it’s just how quickly you can pick it up.”

Rebus: A Game Called Malice, York Theatre Royal, October 15 to 19, 7.30pm; 2pm, Wednesday and Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.