York Theatre Royal Archives - Page 3 of 56

October 9, 2024October 10, 2024

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond amid murder mysteries times two. Hutch’s List No. 37, from Gazette & Herald

*Ed Gamble: No mention of hot dogs at the Grand Opera House, York, despite the show title and tour publicity photo. Picture: Matt Crockett*

IT would not be a Gamble to the see the comedian of that surname, Peter Hook’s Joy Division and New Order excavations, a Miss Marple mystery or a new Rebus play, advises Charles Hutchinson.

Comedy gig of the week: Ed Gamble, Hot Diggity Dog, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm

ED Gamble is promising “all your classicGamble ranting, raving and spluttering, but he’s doing fine mentally. Promise”. After all, he co-hosts the award-winning podcast Off Menuwith James Acaster, is a judge on Great British Menu and Taskmaster champion, hosts Taskmaster The Podcast and The Traitors: Uncloaked and has his own special, Blood Sugar, available on Amazon Prime. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Not Gonna Lie: Fool(ish) Improv conjure comedy from audience stories at The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal*

Improv gig of the week: Fool(ish) Improv present Not Gonna Lie, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow, 8pm

THIS show by Paul Birch and co will take the truth to task by using real stories from the audience to improvise “unbelievable comedy”. Not so much Who’s Line Is It Anyway but more Who’s Lie Is It Anyway, Fool(ish) welcome you to a playful night of joy, nonsense and completely making things up.

“Come confess and unburden yourselves of some silly secrets, tales of the office and childhood memories and we will shape them into surreal sketches and sensational scenes,” say the Yorkshire improvisers trained by the best in Chicago Long-Form improv. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Peter Hook: Revisiting Joy Division and New Order with The Light at York Barbican. Picture: Mark McNulty*

York rock gig of the week: Peter Hook & The Light, Substance World Tour, York Barbican, tomorrow, doors 7pm; start 8pm; curfew 11pm

PETER Hook & The Light compare and contrast his bands Joy Division and New Order’s Substance compilation albums, playing both Manchester groups’ vinyl versions in full, complemented by 12 tracks featured on CD editions.

Hook will be joined by David Potts, his regular companion from Monaco and Revenge, on guitar and vocals, new addition Martin Rebelski, from Doves, on keyboards, Paul Kehoe on drums, and Paul Duffy, from The Coral, deputising for Hooky’s son, Jack Bates, on bass. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Martin Stephenson: Back with The Daintees in Malton*

Ryedale gig of the week: Martin Stephenson & The Daintees, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 13, 8pm

MARTIN Stephenson’s focus will be on You Belong To Blue, the February 2023 album that saw original Daintees’ members Gary Dunn, Anthony Dunn and Charlie Smith, plus a selection of special guests, joining up with the Durham-born singer-songwriter once again.

His Malton set will feature Daintees and Stephenson solo favourites stretching back to his 1986 debut Boat To Bolivia as he dips into country, folk, jazz, blues, skiffle and reggae. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

*Billy Mitchell and Bob Fox: In tandem at the Milton Rooms*

Duo of the week: Billy Mitchell and Bob Fox, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 15, 7.30pm

THIS is a rare opportunity to see North Eastern masters of vocal harmony and musicians Billy Mitchell and Bob Fox perform once again as a duo after several years of individual work. Actor, singer and songwriter Mitchell founded Jack The Lad in the 1970s and was Lindisfarne’s the front man for eight years until their retirement in 2003.

He has undertaken two tours of The Lindisfarne Story and performs in The Pitmen Poets with Fox, Jez Lowe and Benny Graham, presenting songs and stories of Durham and Northumberland’s coal mining communities. Fox interprets traditional and modern songs, played the Songman in the National Theatre’s Warhorse and first toured with Mitchell in 2006, leading to their studio album of Tyne and Wear songs Back On City Road. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

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

York play 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 created by the hostess, 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.

*1812 Theatre Company’s poster for The Mirror Crack’d, a Miss Marple mystery, at Helmsley Arts Centre*

Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, Helmsley Arts Centre, October 16 to 19, 7.30pm

1812 Theatre Company presents Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1962 thriller, wherein Hollywood star Marina Gregg has moved into Gossington Hall and has been persuaded to host the village fête.

When the harmless Heather Badcock, a St John’s Ambulance volunteer with not one enemy in the world, is poisoned by a drink meant for Marina, Chief Inspector Craddock quickly realises the wrong person has died. Fortunately, his aunt, Miss Marple, lives in the village, ever ready to unravel the truth behind the killing as seven suspects face investigation. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

*Strictly between us: Husband and wife Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara announce A Night To Remember tour for 2025*

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. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/aljaz-and-janette-a-night-to-remember.

In Focus: Pickering Musical Society in Wonders Of The West End, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, October 10 to 13

*Paula Paylor, left, and Danille Long in Pickering Musical Society’s Wonders Of The West End. Picture: Robert David Photography*

CURTAIN up tomorrow, Pickering Musical Society is in full swing, putting the final touches to its highly anticipated autumn concert Wonders Of The West End.

This year’s production promises to be a spectacular event, featuring not only the society’s talented performers but also more than 40 dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance.

In a dazzling programme of classic and contemporary show tunes, selections include iconic hits from Gigi, Half A Sixpence, Oliver! and Waitress, to name but a few.

*Colin Wragg in Wonders Of The West End. Picture: Robert David Photography*

The cast and dancers have been working hard under the expert guidance of resident musical director Clive Wass, who will be conducting the orchestra each night.

“The combination of live music, powerful vocals, and stunning choreography promises an unforgettable night of theatre,” says director Luke Arnold. “The carefully curated programme offers something for everyone, whether you’re a fan of the golden age of musicals or the latest West End sensations.

“It would be remiss to reflect on the music without a special mention to the society’s rehearsal pianist, Carl Schofield, who has worked tirelessly with the cast over the past three months to help deliver a stunning performance.”

*Under the parasol: Alice Rose in Wonders Of The West End.* *Picture: Robert David Photography*

This year’s concert marks the debut of regular principal actress Courtney Brown as assistant director under Luke’s stewardship.

“It has been a privilege working with Courtney,” he says. “I could not have wished for a better assistant. We have got on fantastically well from day one and our interest and taste in musical theatre is very similar, which has helped us create a unified production. I look forward to working with Courtney again and seeing her develop as a director.”

Pickering Musical Society presents Wonders Of The West End, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, October 10 to 13, 7.30pm nightly. Box office: 01751 474833 or online at Wonders of the West End (littleboxoffice.com).

*Pickering Musical Society’s full company for Wonders Of The West End. Picture: Robert David Photography*

October 4, 2024October 8, 2024

Freida Nipples launches The Old Paint Shop with Exhibionists burlesque shows at York Theatre Royal on October 5 and 26

*Nun better: Freida Nipples in one of her burlesque guises*

YORK’S new cabaret club, The Old Paint Shop, opens its doors in the Theatre Royal Studio for the first time on Saturday when York queen of burlesque Freida Nipples presents The Exhibionists.

The internationally award-winning Freida – who keeps her real name under wraps, except on her passport – will be welcoming some of her favourite and most fabulous performance artists from across the UK and further afield, from burlesque to drag and beyond, with the guarantee of glamour, gags and giggles.

York-born performer and promoter Freida is no stranger to the Theatre Royal stage, having presented drag queens, acrobats, whip crackers, circus acts, sideshow performers and ‘stripteasers’ of many different flavours there, from comedy caricatures to sensual fan dancers.

Such is her popularity – not least at her Baps & Buns Burlesque nights at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb – that not only October 5’s 8pm launch show has sold out but so too have her The Exhibitionists: Hallowe’en Edition shows at 6pm and 9pm that close the inaugural Old Paint Shop season on October 26.

In between, the Studio space that previously housed the theatre’s workshop will present comedy, improv, jazz, folk and more in a cabaret nightclub setting with tables and chairs. Full details can be found at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

“The big question is, are you ready for it?” teases Freida ahead of The Exhibitionists’ arrival. Judging by the hattrick of sell-outs, the answer is a resounding Yes.

*“I just fell in love with it,” says Freida Nipples. “I instantly knew I wanted to become a burlesque act”*

What first drew her to burlesque? “I’d just gone to university to study sociology and politics in Manchester,” she recalls, sitting in big Fifties spectacles and civvies at the Theatre Royal. “It was the day before my 20^th birthday, when I saw a poster for a burlesque show in Oxford Road. I didn’t have any plans for my birthday and thought, ‘this sounds fun’.

“I went with friends, and it was like a huge lightning bolt to my heart. It was, ‘oh my god, these are my people’, and I just fell in love with it. I instantly knew I wanted to become a burlesque act myself.”

As chance would have it, she met her “burlesque mother” that very night, the legendary Lady Wildflower. They did not speak, beyond Lady Wildflower saying, “thank you for coming”, but “I then went to her burlesque classes. She produces lots of burlesque shows in the north, in Manchester and Yorkshire, and she’s one of the best tutors in burlesque.

“There are burlesque schools, but we don’t have many here apart from in London, but Lady Wildflower teaches lots of classes in Manchester and Leeds.”

The nascent burlesque performer needs to build their “act”. “You learn basic burlesque movement through the classes, and your act can be anything. Often people think of burlesque as having this vintage jazz club vibe, and that can be part of it, but actually there can be a lot of variety,” says Freida. “It’s all just art basically, it’s not all about taking your clothes off.

“Some will do comedy; some will do clowning, some will be political, but it’s definitely not just Jessica Rabbit. So, for example, for my show, I like to tick the classic Fifties’ box .”

*“It’s all just art basically, it’s not all about taking your clothes off,” says Freida Nipples*

Expect “a lot of bare flesh” – “we don’t like to be modest,” says Freida – but humour and stories are equally important. Lady Wildflower will be doing her majestic Moth Queen act, while Ebony Silk’s Marvel comic-themed act is described as “nerdlesque”. “She comes out as a stormtrooper and then tells a story about that character rather than doing a traditional striptease.”

What does Freida say to opponents of burlesque? “When Lady Wildflower and Heidi Bang Tidy started the Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival ten years ago, lots of people called them ‘middle-class strippers’, but they were saying, ‘we are women doing what we want with our bodies. Who are you to say we can’t?’. I’ve been lucky not to have had too much of that going on.”

Banish preconceptions of burlesque acts playing to men in dirty raincoats. Seventy five per cent of Freida’s audiences are women: “Maybe it’s about seeing a version of themselves on stage,” she says.

“That’s part of it – body positivity. There aren’t many places you can go to see a lot of different body types. A lot of people find that very refreshing, especially when you don’t get diverse body types in the papers and magazines where there’s usually only one type. Young and slim. That’s not what you’re going to see at a burlesque show.

“Gay guys and couples are regulars too. Men on their own, with or without dirty raincoats, are a rarity. In eight years of producing shows in York, I don’t recall seeing a men’s group in the audience – but literally everyone is welcome”.

Freida is as much a promoter as a performer. “When I started in London, I struggled to find somewhere to perform so I started a night at the Old Nun’s Head, at Nunhead Green, near Peckham, putting my own money into it, as I still do,” she says.

*“One of my most poular acts is where I start as a nun and then reveal the devil inside, done to [AC/DC’s] Highway To Hell,” says Freida*

“Even now that’s one of the biggest stresses. Ticket sales and the cost of costumes – and I have zero sewing skills! For professional cosumes, you’re looking at a minimum of £500 and it can go up to £10,000. Nice underwear, £150. Wigs, £150.”

She launched Freida Nipples Productions in York in 2017. “I did shows in The Basement at City Screen a few times a year, then some at the Impossible York bar, and I now host a regular show, Baps & Buns Burlesque, at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, as well as the Theatre Royal nights” she says.

“I sometimes do shows at the more intimate Cat In The Wall [in Stonebow] too, and this year I hosted a Valentine’s Day night at The Crescent [Freida Nipples Presents…Valentine’s Day 2024 – Burlesque, Drag & Cabaret, ‘full to the brim full with titillating talent’].

“I like to bring performers from all over the country and would love to have international acts too, like Lady Wildflower does at Hebden Bridge, such as bringing in a headliner from Australia.”

Looking forward to Saturday, Freida says: “I am so honoured to be opening The Old Paint Shop as my grandfather used to do paint work for local productions in his twilight years. He’s one of my influences, especially my love of the 1950s.”

Freida Nipples will be appearing in various guises, not least as a nun. “I was never shy, but drama was my least favourite subject at school [Queen Margaret’s in Escrick]. I found it terrifying. So Freida is me, but revved up,” she says. “I’m not terrified because I feel I’m being me, whereas if I had to play a charcater in a play, maybe I would be.

*“‘Reveal’ is what I do, as I’m not a dancer, I didn’t train in dance, so my costume is really integral to my act,” says Freida*

“I love fashion, I love design. ‘Reveal’ is what I do, as I’m not a dancer, I didn’t train in dance, so my costume is really integral to my act.

“I find playing to 1,000 peope easier because you just go on and do your stage show, whereas when it’s up close and personal you have to adapt and change your choreography, though it’s harder to interconnect with your audience when there are 1,000 people there.”

Freida, who uses her spare bedroom as her home studio, is putting together a new addition to her acts. “It’s a kind of rebellion by my inner angry punk girl against how much capitalism and consumerism is attacking our industry, so I’m working on making a costume out of bin bags,” she says.

“Burlesque shows are a lot more performance art than people realise. Not just cabaret, but lots of stories in the artform that people don’t expect.

“Trixie Blue [‘burlesque echantress, show host principal at House of Trixie Blue and Newcastle Burlesue Festival producer’] once said that going to a burlesque show is like going to Aldi: coming in expecting one thing but going away with so much more after shopping in the middle aisle!”

“Very much living our best child-free life” with her boyfriend, Freida’s burlesque diary for September took her to Drax Working Men’s Club for a charity night and The Macbeth bar in Hoxton, London, for Temple Of Love, “a celebration of all things goddess”.

Now comes The Exhibionists. “I was very nervous choosing a name for the shows as I don’t like giving things names. Like they want a name for the three or four shows that I’ll be doing at the Old Woollen [at Sunnybank Mills, in Farsley, Leeds] next year, after I was invited to do their drag show, Glamourpussy,” says Freida.

*Freida Nipples at the Impossible Bar, York. Picture: Daisy Daydream*

“It’s The Exhibitionists at the Theatre Royal because my nan’s friend Olga said the theatre was in Exhibition Square; it’s Baps & Buns at Rise because it’s a bakery. Now I just need a name for the Old Woollen shows.” [Freida had used the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin Freida Nipples Presents: A Night of Burlesque & Cabaret for her August 27 revue night there].

As for her own stage name, Freida worked under several guises at the start of her career. “Finding a name is the most difficult thing, as with a drag act, finding something that’s not already taken. At first I used a few other names, like Curvella De Ville, which is good, but there were lots of De Villes already,” she recalls.

“After I went to a burlesque workshop in Sheffield, on the train back home, we were talking about using vintage names. Like, think of your nana’s name, but ‘Janet’ wasn’t giving me glamour!”

‘Freida’, her great aunt and sister’s name, however, had possibilities. “When I realised ‘Freida’ had the potential to be wordplay on ‘free’, I knew it had to be Freida Nipples’.”

Freida Nipples presents The Exhibitionists, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 5, 8pm, and The Exhibitionists: Halloween Edition, October 26, 6pm and 9pm; all sold out. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

One last question

Do you ever reveal your real name, Freida?

“No, but it’s on my passport. My family and friends know…but when I’m at work…it’s Freida Nippes.”

*Bottom of the page: “It’s all just art basically, it’s not all about taking your clothes off,” says Freida Nipples*

September 30, 2024October 8, 2024

Has Ian Rankin written his last Rebus novel? ‘It’s up to Rebus. He’ll tell me when he’s had enough of me,’ says thriller writer as his new whodunnit heads to York Theatre Royal

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

NOVELIST Ian Rankin is contemplating killing someone. Not surprising, perhaps, as his business is crime in general and murder in particular.

What does come as a shock is the identity of the person he would like to bump off: his best-selling creation, Scottish detective John Rebus.

However, with a new play, Rebus: A Game Called Malice, heading to York Theatre Royal from October 15 to 19, the six-part BBC television series that aired in May and June, and a new book out next Thursday, Rebus is very much alive and investigating.

“I have tried to bump him off or get rid of him several times,” confesses the Fife-born crime writer and philanthropist, who was knighted for services to literature and charity in June 2023.

“But he seems to want to stick around. He refuses to leave my head.” Indeed so. Earlier attempts to rid himself of Rebus, including the detective’s retirement, have ended in failure.

“With the previous novel, I thought this is the end because at the end of the book he’s in court charged with murder and in the dock waiting to be sentenced,” Rankin explains.

“I thought, ‘what a great way to finish the Rebus series,’ then fans disagreed. They said, ‘we need to know what happened in court. Was he found guilty or not guilty?’, so I’ve written this latest book to explain that and answer the question.

“The end of this new book is, I think, a very good end to the series, so let’s wait and see. It’s up to him, not up to me. It’s up to Rebus. He’ll tell me when he’s had enough of me.”

The latest Rebus thriller, Midnight And Blue, will be sending Rankin out and about to do interviews and head to Yorkshire on a book tour to discuss the landmark novel, meet readers and sign copies.

His 7.30pm visit to The Cat Club, Pontefract, on November 21 has sold out, but tickets are still available for his Farsley Book Festival appearance at the Old Woollen, Sunnybank Mills, Town Street, Farsley, Leeds, on November 22, hosted by Truman Books from 12.30pm to 3pm. To boo tickets, go to: trumanbooks.co.uk/event/an-afternoon-with-sir-ian-rankin or ring 0113 805 6019.

*Crime writer Ian Rankin, second left, with Rebus: A Game Called Malice cast members Billy Hartman, left, Abigail Thaw and Gray O’Brien*. *Picture: Jonathan Phang*

Before then, at York Theatre Royal, he will take part in the post-show discussion with members of the Rebus: A Game Called Malice company after the October 18 performance of his new play, co-written with Simon Reade.

The plot? A splendid dinner party in an Edinburgh mansion concludes with a murder mystery game, wherein a murder needs to be solved. However, the guests have secrets of their own, threatened by the very game they are playing.

Among them is Inspector John Rebu, but is he playing an alternative game, one where only he knows the rules? Cue suspects, clues and danger with every twist and turn and a shocking discovery – a yes, a real-life murder – that sends this game called Malice hurtling towards a gasp-inducing conclusion.

After mentioning his Yorkshire connections – Rankin’s mother grew up in Bradford and he still has family around there and Leeds, whom he hopes will attend the play in York – he enthuses about his upcoming train journey from Edinburgh to York.

“I like taking the train,” he says. “It’s a joy with Durham, Newcastle and the coast. A beautiful part of the world to do by train. And you get to go into the railway station bar – The Tap, isn’t it? – and have a pint.”

Tickets are selling well for the Theatre Royal run of Rebus: A Game Called Malice, testament to the public appetite for whodunnit, detective and crime stories. “It’s a very popular genre and producers know it will put bums on seats. It’s a good night out,” says Rankin.

“You’re working hard mentally in a fun way, there’s an interval when you can get a drink and discuss with your friends and family what you think is going on, what happens next. And you’re in and out of the theatre in two hours. As far as I’m concerned, I want to be home and in bed by ten o’clock.”

Rebus has been a hit on stage from the start. Rankin recalls being told by the manager of the King’s Theatre, where the first play, Rebus: Long Shadows, premiered in Edinburgh, that “he’d never seen takings like it”. “So they were very happy because they were selling more drinks at the interval,” says Rankin.

He wrote the first draft of the latest Rebus play during lockdown, “basically to entertain myself”. “It was written without anyone knowing I was doing it,” he says. “When I read it I thought, ‘it’s short but I like it’, so I showed it to Simon Reade, who is a professional playwright with whom I’d worked previously. He picked it apart and put it together again – and that’s what we’ve got.”

Writing a play and a book present differing challenges. “You have to get in a completely different mindset. In a novel, you can be inside a character’s head, you can have a huge cast of characters, you can range widely over geography and time,” says Rankin. “A play is a much more succinct entity and the actors have to speak your ideas.

“*A play is a much more succinct entity [than a novel] and the actors have to speak your ideas*,” *says Ian Rankin*

“The challenge for me is in how different it is. You have to tell a story through voices in a way that I don’t when writing a novel. Very early in my writing career I was writing radio plays for the BBC. They were a lot of fun to do and I enjoyed working with the director and actors. Sometimes the actors came up with much better lines than mine. But the writer gets the credit when it’s broadcast, so it’s terrific from my point of view.

“Writing a novel is not collective. You sit there in splendid isolation for six months to a year. With a play, from quite early on it is collaborative, especially when the actors and director get involved.

“It changes shape because the intonation of each actor is different to the way I imagined the lines being spoken. The way they move around the stage is not how I imagined it might be. And every night in the theatre is, of course, subtly different from the night before.”

Assorted actors have played John Rebus both on stage and television, among them John Michie, who appeared in a try-out of A Game Called Malice but could not commit to a long tour this year.

Gray O’Brien, familiar to TV viewers through Casualty, Coronation Street and Peak Practice, takes on the role on the road, and Rankin is confident he will do the character justice.

Not protective of Rebus, he says each actor adds something to the role: “Every actor is going to give me a slightly different interpretation. Every actor that has played him on television, on radio, on stage has brought something new to the performance and my understanding of this complex character.

“I’ve been writing about this guy Rebus since 1985, and the first book was published in 1987. 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. And so each actor helps me understand the character a little bit better.”

He missed the first week’s run of Rebus: A Game Of Malice at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on account of a pre-arranged holiday in Greece. He will turn 65 on April 28 next year and his wife has suggested that he might consider slowing down work-wise to enable them to go travelling.

It should be noted that this is a big ask of a writer who could not resist doing some work during a recent year-long sabbatical. His wife has been booking holidays aplenty, but will she be more successful at encouraging him to take things easy than he has been so far at killing off Rebus?

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

Ian Rankin’s new Rebus book, Midnight And Blue, will be published by Orion Books on October 10.

*Gray O’Brien’s Inspector John Rebus in a scene from Rebus: A Game Called Malice, directed by Loveday Ingram. Picture: Nobby Clark*

Did you know?

GRAY O’Brien will be appearing at a York theatre for the second time in 2024. His role as John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice at the Theatre Royal follows his performance as Juror 10 in Twelve Angry Men at the Grand Opera House from May 13 to 18.

September 27, 2024September 27, 2024

REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on Little Women, York Theatre Royal, until October 12 ****

*Ainy Medina, left, Laura Soper, Freya Parks, front, and Helen Chong in Little Women at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlotte Graham*

SEPTEMBER 30 marks the 156th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Louise May Alcott’s Little Women books. She wrote it in only ten weeks, a speed matched by the flashing hand of Freya Parks’s restless Jo March, beret in place as ever when at work, in Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster’s free-flowing production.

Alcott’s coming-of-age tale of the March sisters growing up in well-to-do New England during the American Civil War is deemed a “timeless classic” (to quote the Theatre Royal brochure), as popular now as when first published.

Yet the British stage has tended to stage adaptations of Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and Mary Shelley novels rather than Alcott. Looking back through The York Press archives, your reviewer cannot find any past productions in York, the closest being a Lip Service parody, Very Little Women, that toured the Theatre Royal in October 2004.

“I can’t remember ever reading Little Women as a child, but Sue [Ryding] did, and she wept buckets,” said her late partner in spoofery, Maggie Fox. “She said we must do it some time, so I had to read it, and she was absolutely right: we just had to do it. It’s so sanctimonious, so twee…just awful…and they’re Americans.”

*Helen Chong’s Amy March and Nikhil Singh Rai’s Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham*

Hold your high horses. Maggie went on to say the satire was applied with “affection, and also respect for Alcott. She was one of the first woman writers to write about her own life and she was able to make a living out of writing. She was incredibly successful in her own lifetime.”

Anne-Marie Casey brings a similarly affectionate tone to her adaptation of the story of sensible Meg (Ainy Medina), tomboy and would-be novelist Jo (Freya Parks, from the 2024 BBC series This Town), vain, silly Amy (Helen Chong) and consumptive, piano-playing Beth (York actress Laura Soper, in her first Theatre Royal appearance since her professional debut in Swallows & Amazons in 2019).

Sanctimonious? Twee? Just awful? No, no, and thrice no. Very American, yes, but Casey does not stir even a spoonful of sugar into her account of the siblings’ journey from childhood to adulthood in the mid-19th century.

Instead, she combines humour with sadness, candour with kindness, storytelling with travelogue, all the while addressing the matter of a women’s role in society, amid the fractious relationships, the pursuit of love, the absence of the father on chaplaincy duty in the war and the need for matriarch Marmee (York actress Kate Hampson) to be a single mother in such stressful circumstances.

*The power of the written word: Freya Parks’s Jo March and Kate Hampson’s Marmee in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham*

Against the backdrop of a divided America’s November 2024 presidential clash coming down to a regressive man versus a progressive woman, with polar opposite views on such matters as abortion, resonance is not hard to find in Little Women.

Albeit that marriage is still the end-all, although not the be-all for Jo, who symbolically takes the lead when dancing, a habit forged in dancing with her sisters but also testament to her determination to do her own thing. Best summed up in burning the back of her dress when standing too close to the fire.

Parks is the stand-out here, a fiery talent fast on the rise (she heads off to her next filming engagement as soon as Little Women ends). The last time your reviewer saw an actor on the York stage destined for the heights was when Sally Hawkins, fresh from drama school, played Juliet in Romeo And Juliet. Parks’s Jo is full of humour, vigour, pathos, impetuous urges, artistic intellect and resolute ambition. Love too.

Medina, Chong and especially Soper more than play their part too, and there is a theatrical grace to the ailing Beth’s scene with Jo, culminating in an exit in white for Beth that symbolises the passing into death: a moment that film could not do so elegiacally or indeed so sparingly.

*Clashing opinions: Freya Parks’s Jo March and Caroline Gruber’s Aunt March in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham*

Hampson’s Marmee is firm but as fair as her hair, always urging her daughters to maximise their talents, whether for music, dress-making, art or writing, equal in her love and counsel for each, but away from their gaze, sadness at her husband being away permeates the glowing surface.

A scene stealer emerges in Caroline Gruber’s match-making Aunt March, the Lady Bracknell of the piece with her waspish tongue, snobbery and insistent interventions.

And what of the men? Nikhil Singh Rai’s Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence is the handsome, elegant, well-mannered, fun-loving prankster and foil for Jo, with the devilish player streak below that smart, engaging, enquiring posh-boy, privileged surface. Hard to resist, like a matinee idol, you might say. Later, such a type would be found in a Tennessee Williams play.

Jack Ashton reveals the importance of being earnest in not one but two roles as men with academic minds, serious intentions and not much income: firstly John Brooke, Meg’s devoted tutor; then the Teutonic professor, Bhaer, who could have been borrowed from a Chekhov or Ibsen play.

*Jack Ashton in rehearsal for his role as Professor Bhaer in Little Women*

Forster’s direction brings out the nuances in all these performances, never over-stating anything, but letting the power of storytelling take grip, whether in the first act, where the action is concentrated in the March house, save for a skating accident depicted with clever use of lighting by Jane Lalljee, or the second, where Amy goes travelling in Europe and Jo heads to New York to begin penning her sensationalist stories.

Ruari Murchison’s set design, first used in Pitlochry Theatre Festival’s production, is first class too, making expressive use of curtains, wooden furniture and in particular silver birch tree trunks, sometimes used for hanging a coat to convey a transition from outdoors to indoors. Her costumes delight too, as do Erin Carter’s movement direction and the sisters’ singing in harmony by the piano.

Freya Parks. Remember that name. A tall woman amid Little Women, making a big impact, with a stellar career ahead.

Little Women, presented by York Theatre Royal in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Scotland, at York Theatre Royal, until October 12. Performances: 7.30pm, September 27 and 28, October 1, 3, 5, 8 to 12; 2pm, October 2, 3 and 10; 2.30pm, September 28, October 5 and 12; 6.30pm, October 4 and 7; 7pm, October 2. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

September 26, 2024September 26, 2024

More Things To Do in York and beyond from September 21 onwards. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 39, from The Press, York

*Kate Hampson in the matriarchal role of Marmee in York Theatre Royal’s production of Little Women. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick*

GARDEN ghosts, a coming-of-age classic, a political groundbreaker, astronaut insights and an awful aunt stir Charles Hutchinson into action as autumn makes its entry.

Play opening of the week: Little Women, York Theatre Royal, September 21 to October 12

CREATIVE director Juliet Forster directs York Theatre Royal’s repertory cast in Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age story of headstrong Jo March and her sisters Meg, Beth and Amy as they grow up in New England during the American Civil War.

Adapted by Anne-Marie Casey, the production features Freya Parks, from BBC1’s This Town, as Jo, Ainy Medina as Meg, Helen Chong as Amy and York actress Laura Soper as Beth. Kate Hampson returns to the Theatre Royal to play Marmee after leading the community cast in The Coppergate Woman. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Steve Wynn: A night of stories and songs at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb. Picture: Guy Kokken*

York gig of the week: Steve Wynn, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True: A Night Of Songs And Stories, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, September 21, 7.30pm

STEVE Wynn, founder and leader of Californian alt. rock band The Dream Syndicate, promotes his first solo album since 2010, Make It Right (Fire Records), and his new memoir, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (Jawbone Press), both released on August 30.

Touring the UK solo for the first time in more than ten years, his one-man show blends songs from and inspired by the book with a narrative structure of readings and storytelling. Expect evergreens and rarities from The Dream Syndicate’s catalogue, coupled with illuminating covers and reflective numbers from the new record. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

*Ghosts In The Garden: Returning for fourth season with more locations and more wire-mesh ghosts*. *Picture: Gareth Buddo/Andy Little*

Installation of the week: Ghosts In The Gardens, haunting York until November 5

GHOSTS In The Gardens returns with 45 ghosts, inspired by York’s past, for visitors to discover in the city’s public gardens and green spaces, with the Bar walls, St Olave’s Church and York Railway Station among the new locations.

Organiser York BID has partnered with design agency Unconventional Design for the fourth year to create the semi-translucent 3D sculptures out of narrow-gauge wire mesh, six of them new for 2024. Pick up the map for this free event from the Visitor Information Centre on Parliament Street and head to https://www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-in-the-gardens/ for full details

*Points Of View, stainless steel, by Tony Cragg, at Castle Howard. Picture: Nick Howard*

Last chance to see: Tony Cragg’s Sculptures, Castle Howard, near York, ends September 22

TONY Cragg’s sculptures, the first major exhibition by a leading contemporary artist to be held in the grounds and house at Castle Howard, closes on Sunday after a successful run since May 3 that has seen a 12 per cent rise in visitor numbers since the equivalent period last year.

On show are large-scale bronze sculptures in the gardens plus works in wood, glass sculptures and works on paper, some being displayed for the first time in Great Britain. Opening hours: grounds, 10am to 5pm, last entry 4pm; house, 10am to 3pm. Tickets: 01653 648333 or castlehoward.co.uk.

*Making her point: Lauren Robinson as politician Jennie Lee in Mikron Theatre’s premiere of Jennie Lee. Picture: Robling Photography*

Political drama of the week: Mikron Theatre Company in Jennie Lee, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, September 22, 4pm to 6pm

IN Marsden company Mikron Theatre’s premiere of Jennie Lee, Lindsay Rodden charts the extraordinary life of the radical Scottish politician, Westminster’s youngest MP, so young that, as a woman in 1929, she could not even vote for herself.

Tenacious, bold and rebellious, Lee left her coal-mining family in Scotland and fought with her every breath for the betterment of all lives, for wages, health and housing, and for art and education too, as the first Minister for the Arts and founder of the Open University. She was the wife of NHS founder Nye Bevan, but Jennie is no footnote in someone else’s past. Box office: mikron.org.uk/show/jennie-lee-clements-hall.

*Crime novelists Ajay Chowdhury, left, and Luca Veste team up for The Big Read in York and Harrogate on Monday*

Book event of the week: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival presents The Big Read, Acomb Explore Library, York, September 23, 12.30pm to 1.30pm; The Harrogate Inn, Harrogate, September 23, 2.30pm to 3.30pm

THE North’s biggest book club, The Big Read, returns next week with visits to York and Harrogate on the first day, when visitors can meet the festival’s reader-in-residence, Luca Veste, and fellow novelist Ajay Chowdhury, who will discuss Chowdhury’s Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year, The Detective.

More than 1,000 free copies of tech entrepreneur, writer and theatre director Ajay Chowdhury’s 2023 novel from his Detective Kamil Rahman series will be distributed across the participating libraries. Entry is free.

*Astronaut Tim Peake: Exploring the evolution of space travel at York Barbican*

Travel show of the week: Tim Peake, Astronauts: The Quest To Explore Space, York Barbican, September 25, 7.30pm

BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake is among only 610 people to have travelled beyond Earth’s orbit. After multiple My Journey To Space tours of his own story, he makes a return voyage to share stories of fellow astronauts as he explores the evolution of space travel.

From the first forays into the vast potential of space in the 1950s and beyond, to the first human missions to Mars, Peake will traverse the final frontier with tales of the experience of space flight, living in weightlessness, the dangers and unexpected moments of humour and the years of training and psychological and physical pressures that an astronaut faces. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta and Annie Cordoni’s Stella in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Douet*

Children’s show of the week: Birmingham Stage Company in Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, September 26 to 29

CHILDREN’S author David Walliams and Birmingham Stage Company team up for the fourth time. Ater adaptations of Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, here comes actor-manager Neal Foster’s stage account of Awful Auntie.

As Stella (Annie Cordoni ) sets off to visit London with her parents, she has no idea her life is in danger. When she wakes up three months later, not everything Aunt Alberta (Foster) tells her turns out to be true. She quickly discovers she is in for the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie! Suitable for age five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

September 19, 2024September 19, 2024

Kate Hampson returns to York Theatre Royal stage for matriarchal role in Little Women

*“Marmee is a really fascinating character to play,” says Kate Hampson of her role in Little Women. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick*

YORK actress Kate Hampson returns to the York Theatre Royal stage on Saturday for the first time since her title role in the August 2022 community play The Coppergate Woman.

She will play Marmee, mother to the March girls, in creative director Juliet Forster’s repertory production of Anne-Marie Casey’s re-telling of Louisa May Alcott’s cherished American novel Little Women, presented in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

She is joined in this coming-of-age story of growing up in New England during the American Civil War by This Town star Freya Parks as headstrong daughter Jo, Ainy Medina as Meg, Helen Chong as Amy and fellow returnee York actress Laura Soper as piano-playing Beth.

“It’s been a really challenging but joyful rehearsal period, working with Juliet again, and I can’t wait to play it to audiences – and I get to walk to work each day!” says Kate in a lunchtime break. “The cast are all fantastic, each bringing something new and unique to their roles. We’re all getting on really well, working with voice coach Yvonne Morley to get the accent right and united, because it’s not only a different [American] accent but an accent from a different time, and we have to sound related to each other.”

Describing Marmee’s matriarchal role, Kate says: “What’s really striking is that for most of the play, she’s a single mother, and that’s a hard task. She’s presented as wholesome and deeply loving, caring for each child equally, encouraging each of them to achieve their full potential, but she’s also Victorian, stiffer, more formal, than today.

“There’s a softness to her but there’s also that Victorian formality, which was the behaviour of the time. So you can’t go too gentle and soft in the role, even though she’s a great mum. It’s the way she gives them their autonomy that’s beautiful to watch. She lets her daughters make up their own minds, not collectively, but individually, seeing them as each being very different with very different needs.”

Kate continues: “Marmee is a really fascinating character to play. She’s a challenge because she’s often portrayed as this warm, kind woman, full of wisdom, the perfect mother, and to some extent she is that, but she’s multi-faceted, and I’m keen to explore that, especially in her relationship with Jo. Like when Jo says, ‘I have this rage’, and Marmee says, ‘I had this rage too and I had to learn to suppress it’.

“She’s very pragmatic, she knows the limitations, and yet she wants her daughters to ‘dream big’, but she had that rage and sadness that she couldn’t do the things she wanted to do. She is both very loving and good at imparting knowledge, getting her daughters to solve their problems themselves, rather than spoon-feeding them.”

Kate has enjoyed shaping her interpretation of Marmee’s role in the rehearsal room. “You get this thing with character development where you start in one place, take it to another place, and then you have to bring it back to what feels the right place, pulling it back by thinking ‘would I be standing like this?’ or ‘would I be so affectionate at this point?’,” says Kate.

“It’s lovely to have had the time to do that, and I feel that on the first night, it’ll be where I want it to be, but characters always develop further in the run, when you find new things and the relationships develop too.”

Reflecting on the abiding popularity of Louisa Alcott’s story, Kate says: “I think she was so progressive as a writer. You only have to look at her own life, how she lived it, her relationship with her parents. She was progressive, she was feminist and she was brave.

“People can still identify with that. There are still the same issues on life’s journey; the ups and downs of family relationships in that world still prevail. There’s also the challenge to modern audiences, where they have to think: how can we continue to strive to be better and strive for more equality, especially in societies where there is still none. Both remain relevant goals, because it’s not finished, it’s not done.”

Urging York audiences to attend Little Women, Kate says: “Come and sit in a beautiful space and be entertained by a classic play told in a new way. You want people to enjoy it but to go away with questions to answer because the story still resonates.

“It deals with universal themes of family, love and loyalty, the good times and the bad times, so though it’s historical, you can make it relevant to today, resonating with the experiences we have to deal with or might yet have to face.”

Little Women, York Theatre Royal, September 21 to October 12. Performances: 7.30pm, September 21, 24 to 28, October 1, 3, 5 and 8 to 12; 2pm, September 25 and 26, October 2, 3 and 10; 2.30pm, September 28, October 5 and 12; 6.30pm, October 4 and 7, and 7pm, October 2 (fundraising gala). Post-show discussion: October 11. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

* The special fundraising gala performance on October 2 will raise vital funds for York Theatre Royal’s continued work as a producing theatre and for the development of future community projects.

Copyright of The Press, York

September 18, 2024October 5, 2024

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond as poet John Hegley talks potatoes. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 34, from Gazette & Herald

*John Hegley: Two poetry peformances at Helmsley Literary Festival. Picture: Jackie di Stefano*

HELMSLEY Literary Festival leads off Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations to fill the cultural diary, joined by drag, folk and blues acts and an American coming-of-age classic.

Festival of the week highlight: Helmsley Literary Festival, Helmsley Arts Centre, John Hegley, New & Selected Potatoes, Saturday, 7pm to 8pm; I Am A Poetato, Sunday, 11am to 12 noon

POET, comic, singer, songwriter and spectacles wearer John Hegley heads to Helmsley with two shows, the first being his seriously funny, cleverly comic “best of golden oldies compilation with some new stuff” about love, family, France, art, the sea, dogs, dads, gods, taxidermy, carrots, glasses and…potatoes.

Second gig I Am A Poetato features An A-Z of Poems about People, Pets and other Creatures! Spelling it out for Helmsley, he promises Hedgehogs. Elephants. Laughing. Mandolin. Singing. Luton. Even a cardboard camel with moving parts. Yo! For full details of two days of talks, signings, readings, open mic and a quiz, with Hegley, Anne Fine, Joanne Harris, Harriet Constable and The Chase’s Paul Sinha, visit helmsleyarts.co.uk. Box office: 01439 771700.

*Bianca Del Rio: Discussing politics, pop culture and political correctness at York Barbican*

Drag show of the week: Bianca Del Rio, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm

COMEDY drag queen and RuPaul’s Drag Race champion Bianca Del Rio heads to York on her 11-date stand-up tour. Up for irreverent discussion will be politics, pop culture, political correctness, current events, cancel culture and everyday life, as observed through the eyes of a “clown in the gown”, who will be “coming out of my crypt and hitting the road again to remind everyone that I’m still dead inside”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Ryan Adams: Heading back to York Barbican on Friday*

Return of the week: Ryan Adams, Solo 2024, York Barbican, Friday, doors 7pm

NORTH Carolina singer-songwriter Ryan Adams returns to York Barbican next week after playing a very long, career-spanning set there with no stage lighting – only his own side lamps – in April last year. This time he will be marking the 20th anniversary of 2004’s Love Is Hell and tenth anniversary of 2014’s self-titled album, complemented by Adams classics and favourites. Adams, who visited the Grand Opera House in 2007 and 2011, will be performing on acoustic guitar and piano. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Harp & A Monkey: Songs of everyday life, love and remembrance at Kirk Theatre, Pickering*

Folk gig of the week: Friday Folk presents Harp & A Monkey, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Friday, 7.30pm

GREATER Manchester song-and-storytelling trio Harp & A Monkey specialise in poignant, uplifting and melodic short stories, both original and traditional, about everyday life, love and remembrance. In a nutshell, the extraordinary ordinary, from cuckolded molecatchers and a lone English oak tree that grows at Gallipoli to care in the community, medieval pilgrims and Victorian bare-knuckle boxers.

This versatile collective of artists, animators, storytellers and multi-instrumentalists has undertaken bespoke songwriting for soundtrack, film and art projects for the likes of Sky Arts and the Department of Sport, Media and Culture. Fylingdales Folk Choir will perform too. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

*York actress Kate Hampson in the matriarchal role of Marmee in Little Women at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick*

Play of the week: Little Women, York Theatre Royal, Saturday to October 12

CREATIVE director Juliet Forster directs York Theatre Royal’s new production of Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age story of headstrong Jo March and her sisters Meg, Beth and Amy as they grow up in New England during the American Civil War.

*Seedling, by Sarah Sharpe, on show in Leeds Fine Artists’ 150th anniversary show at Blossom Street Gallery*

Exhibition of the week: Leeds Fine Artists Celebrating 150 Years, Blossom Street Gallery, York, until October 31

LEEDS Fine Artists is celebrating its 150th anniversary with an exhibition at its regular York host, Blossom Street Gallery, featuring an inspirational collection of work demonstrating a wide range of styles and different media.

Taking part are: Sharron Astbury-Petit; Dawn Broughton; Jane Burgess; Mark Butler; Pete Donnelly; Alison Flowers; Roger Gardner; Margarita Godgelf; Dan Harnett; Peter Heaton; Nicholas Jagger; Michael Curgenven; Catherine Morris; Martin Pearson; Clare Phelan; Trevor Pittaway; Neil Pittaway; Annie Robinson; Annie Roche; Sarah Sharpe and John Sherwood. Opening hours: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10am to 4pm; Sundays, 10am to 3pm.

*Tim Peake: Exploring the evolution of space travel at York Barbican*

Travel show of the week: Tim Peake, Astronauts: The Quest To Explore Space, York Barbican, September 25, 7.30pm

BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake is among only 610 people to have travelled beyond Earth’s orbit. After multiple My Journey To Space tours of his own story, he makes a return voyage with his stellar new show, sharing the collected stories of fellow astronauts as he explores the evolution of space travel.

From the first forays into the vast potential of space in the 1950s and beyond, to the first human missions to Mars, Peake will traverse the final frontier with tales of the experience of spaceflight, living in weightlessness, the dangers and unexpected moments of humour and the years of training and psychological and physical pressures that an astronaut faces. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Lightning Threads: Showcasing their debut album, Off That Lonely Road, at Milton Rooms, Malton*

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club, Lightning Threads, Milton Rooms, Malton, September 26, 8pm

SHEFFIELD blues-rock trio Lightning Threads are influenced by the great rock musicians of another time, drawing comparisons with The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr, Cream and The Doors.

Tom Jane, guitar and vocals, Sam Burgum, bass and vocals, and Hugh Butler, drums and keyboards, have been nominated for Best Album in the 2024 Blues Awards for their November 2023 debut, Off That Lonely Road, recorded with Andrew Banfield, of Superfly Studios, and graced by Kelly Michaeli’s gospel vocals. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

September 13, 2024September 13, 2024

Meet the stars of York Theatre Royal’s panto Aladdin from CBeebies presenter to villain’s return and dame’s new title

*Aladdin cast members Tommy Carmichael, left, Paul Hawkyard, Evie Pickerill, Robin Simpson and Emily Tang outside York Theatre Royal. Picture: Ant Robling*

STARS of the 2024-2025 pantomime Aladdin have gathered for a launch day at York Theatre Royal.

Present were Robin Simpson, who will return for his fifth panto season as the dame, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey, and fellow Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, renewing his badinage with Simpson as villainous Abanazar after a gap year from the Theatre Royal show, appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.

There too were Evie Pickerill, the latest CBeebies presenter to join the Theatre Royal-Evolution Productions co-production, cast as the Spirit of the Ring; Emily Tang, who will play Princess Jasmine, and Tommy Carmichael, whose role will be Charlie.

Absent from Tuesday’s media event was Saria Solomon, otherwise engaged on tour playing Donny in the musical Grease, but he had attended a launch already in June to promote his title role in the York panto, to be directed once more by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and written by Evolution director Paul Hendy, winner of the Best Script award for Aladdin at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, in the UK Pantomime Association’s 2024 Pantomime Awards.

The first name to be confirmed for Aladdin was Robin Simpson, as early as during last winter’s run of Jack And The Beanstalk, wherein his Dame Trott followed up his Mrs Smee in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Ugly Sister Manky in a Pantomime Awards-nominated double act with Hawkyard’s Mardy. In the socially distanced first winter of Covid, he had first played the Theatre Royal’s dame in The Travelling Pantomime that toured to community centres around York.

“It’s nice they have that faith in me not to put people off,” he says of being the first poster face of the promotional campaign for Aladdin.

*Hello, Dolly: Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly, starring in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal this winter. Picture: Ant Robling*

After his partnership with Zeus, the scene-stealing Border Collie, in Jack And The Beanstalk, Robin will resume striking comedy sparks with Paul Hawkyard. “Paul’s very uncontrollable,” he says. “He doesn’t follow orders, but he does work for treats. It’s nice to have him back, and it’s always nice to be back at the Theatre Royal.

“A few years ago I wouldn’t have envisaged that I’d be doing panto for ten years now, because before that I didn’t really do panto, as the kids were young and I liked to be at home with them for Christmas.

“I understudied Berwick [Kaler] here one year. The Huddersfield panto came along, and then I started working here with the ‘pandemic panto’ when theatres were in flux, and it’s a joy to be back again for Aladdin.”

Guess who Paul Hawkyard played in his panto season away from York. “I was the dame! I went to Dubai over the Christmas period to appear in Beauty And The Beast there – and it was gorgeous,” he says. “As you’re rehearsing, in between scenes if you’re not in that scene, you can dive into the swimming pool and relax – but make sure to remove your flip-flops before you go back into the rehearsal room.”

Now Paul will be returning to the dark side as Abanazar after playing Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan. “It’s great to be back with Robin. We keep in touch with each other, like painting a portrait of his mam’s dog,” says wildlife artist Paul. “It’s lovely to be back working with Juliet [Forster] too, and it’s been so uplifting to have had messages from people saying they’d missed me last year.

“Being welcomed by York is a good feeling, and it’s such a good panto because the standard is so high: the costumes, the scenery, Paul’s script, the speciality acts. It’s another level.

*Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar on the York Theatre Royal stage*. *Picture: Ant Robling*

“And the lovely thing about me and Robin is that it’s not just the chemistry on stage. He’ll stay over at my home if he’s passing by when he’s doing his story shows.”

Evie Pickerill, one of the principal presenters on the children’s television channel CBeebies since 2018 and a regular CBBC host too, follows Andy Day, Mandy Moate and James “Raven” McKenzie in joining the Theatre Royal panto ranks. “That’s big shoes to fill,” she says. “Playing the Spirit of the Ring will be my first time on the York stage but I’ve been to York and handful of times and love it here.

“I played Cinderella at The Grand, Wolverhampton, and Leicester de Montford Hall and Snow White at Wolverhampton, and this will be a different kind of role. With the Spirit of the Ring, there’s a bit of comedy, a bit of silliness.

“After doing panto for Imagine and in-house at Wolverhampton, working for Evolution at York Theatre Royal is big-boy panto; they’re the king of panto. Apparently we’ll be doing a lot of character work, which is different from the other pantos I’ve done.”

Before rehearsals begin for Aladdin, Evie will be heading up to Edinburgh to record the CBeebies pantomime at the Festival Theatre and then returning to the BBC studio. “I’m playing the Robin in Beauty And The Beast,” she reveals. The Robin, Evie? “She’s Belle’s best friend, and she flies – and I’ve never flown across a stage before. That’s exciting!”

Evie loves pantomime. “I first went when I was seven or eight and straightaway I said to my parents, ‘that’s what I want to do’,” she says. “I left home at 18 to go to drama school in Liverpool, doing the acting course at LIPA, and I’ve never looked back.”

Aladdin will run at York Theatre Royal from December 3 to January 5 2025. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Evie Pickerill’s Spirit of the Ring. Picture: Ant Robling*

September 11, 2024September 11, 2024

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond when musical theatre goes back to school. Hutch’s List No. 33, from Gazette & Herald

*Finn East’s Dewey Finn and Eady Mensah’s Tomika in rehearsal for York Stage’s School Of Rock: The Next Generation*

FOR those about to rock, or celebrate jazz greats, or glory in Henry V, Charles Hutchinson stacks up reasons to head out and about.

Musical of the week: York Stage in School Of Rock: The Next Generation, Grand Opera House, York, September 13 to 21, 7.30pm, except September 15 and 16; 2.30pm, September 14 and 21; 4pm, September 15

YORK Stage is ready to rock in the riotous musical based on the 2003 Jack Black film, re-booted with a book by Julian Fellowes, lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Failed rock musician Dewey Finn (Finn East), desperate for money, chances his arm by faking it as a substitute teacher at a stuffy American prep school, jettisoning Math(s) in favour of propelling his students to become the most awesome rock band ever. Will he be found out by the parents and headmistress, leaving Dewey to face the music? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe: Running his 11th York Chamber Music Festival next week*

Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, various venues, September 13 to 15

FOR its 11th season, York Chamber Music Festival artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe is bringing together pianist Andrew Brownell, violinists Ben Hancox and Magnus Johnston, viola players Gary Pomeroy and Simone van der Giessen, cellist Marie Bitlloch and flautist Sam Coles.

The centenary of French composer Gabriel Fauré’s death will be marked prominently in the five concerts. For the full programme and tickets, go to: ycmf.co.uk.

*Ronnie Scott’s All Stars: Presenting Ronnie Scott’s Soho Songbook at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Shawn Pearce*

Jazz gig of the week: Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club Presents The Ronnie Scott’s Soho Songbook, York Theatre Royal, September 13, 7.30pm

RONNIE Scott’s Jazz Club returns to York Theatre Royal with a new collection of music, narration and projected archive images and rare footage, celebrating Ronnie Scott’s Soho Songbook.

Hosted and performed by the award-winning Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, led by musical director James Pearson, the show offers a glimpse into the London club’s storied world with its litany of legendary jazz players and vocalists. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568.

*Paul Carrack: Celebrating 50 years since his first hit, Ace’s How Long, at York Barbican. Picture: Nico Wills Cornbury*

Ace memoir of the week: Paul Carrack, How Long: 50th Anniversary Tour 2024, York Barbican, September 14, 7.30pm

IN 1974, Sheffield musician Paul Carrack was in “fun London band” Ace when he penned How Long, a song that would reach number three in the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart. Phil Collins named it among his top ten favourites in a 1981 issue of Smash Hits.

“How Long is probably the first song I wrote,” recalls Carrack, now 73. “I wrote the song about a real situation, a situation that many people could relate to. Little did I know that it would become a classic and touch the hearts of so many.” His 50th anniversary tour takes a journey through his career, from his days with Ace, Squeeze and Mike + The Mechanics to his solo years. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Alchemy Live: In Dire Straits in Helmsley*

Tribute gig of the week: Alchemy Live, A Tribute To Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits, Helmsley Arts Centre, September 14, 8pm

FORMED in 2022 by frontman Martin Ledger, Yorkshire band Alchemy Live bring together a group of professional players and friends that shares a common love of the music of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits.

Alchemy Live are “all about the music, no lookalike competitions here”, re-creating the Dire Straits sound as accurately as possible. Every guitar solo is taken from a specific show and reproduced note for note. “Close your eyes and you’re right there, at the Hammersmith Odeon back in 1983,” says Ledger. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Book event of the week: Kemps Presents Dan Jones, Henry V: The Astonishing Rise Of England’s Greatest Warrior King, Milton Rooms, Malton, September 17, 7.30pm

HISTORIAN, television presenter, journalist, podcaster and author Dan Jones says he has been waiting to write Henry V’s biography for many years on account of Agincourt victor Henry being considered as the pinnacle and paragon of medieval kingship, both his own time and for centuries thereafter.

Jones will discuss “one of the most intriguing characters in all medieval history, but one of the hardest to pin down” and sign copies of the book post-discussion. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

*Charlie Parr: Showcasing blues and folk songs of community and communing with nature at Pocklington Arts Centre*

Troubadour of the week: Charlie Parr, Pocklington Arts Centre, September 19, 8pm

RAISED in Austin, Texas, and now living in the Lake Superior port town of Duluth, folk troubadour and bluesman poet Charlie Parr has recorded 19 albums since 2002, this year releasing Little Sun, full of stories celebrating music, community and communing with nature.

Taking to the road between shows, this American guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music writes and rewrites songs as he plays, drawing on the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship echoing the works of his working-class upbringing, notably Folkways legends Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

*Iago Banet: Fingerstyle acoustic guitarist plays solo in Helmsley. Picture: Sue Rainbow*

Guitarist of the week: Iago Banet, Helmsley Arts Centre, September 20, 8pm

IAGO Banet, “the Galician King of Acoustic Guitar” from northern Spain, visits Helmsley on the back of releasing his third album, the self-explanatory Tres, in 2023.

Featured on BCC Radio 2’s The Blues Show With Cerys Matthews, this solo fingerstyle acoustic guitarist has played such festivals as Brecon Jazz, Hellys International Guitar Festival and Aberjazz, displaying skill, complexity and versatility in his fusion of gypsy jazz, blues, Americana, country, Dixieland, swing, pop and folk. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

September 7, 2024September 7, 2024

More Things To Do in York and beyond as Monet’s Water Lily-Pond bids farewell. Hutch’s List No. 37, from The Press, York

*Anna Hibiscus’ Song: Theatrical story of self-discovery from Nigeria at York Theatre Royal*

FROM African storytelling to Milton Jones’s puns, Will Young’s joyous pop to Dewey Finn’s teaching methods, Charles Hutchinson finds reasons to smile.

Children’s show of the week: Utopia Theatre and Sheffield Theatres present Anna Hibiscus’ Song, York Theatre Royal, today, 11am and 2pm

THIS is the story of a young African girl named Anna Hibiscus, who lives in Ibadan, Nigeria, where she is so filled with happiness that she feels like she might float away. The more she talks to her family about it, the more her happiness grows. The only thing to do is…sing!

Told through music, dance, puppetry and traditional African storytelling, this theatrical story of self-discovery is adapted for the stage by director Mojisola Kareem from the book by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia. Suitable for children aged three upwards and their grown-ups. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*The Water-Lily Pond, oil on canvas, by Claude Monet, 1899, on show at York Art Gallery until tomorrow. Copyright: National Gallery*

Last chance to see: National Treasures: Monet In York: The Water-Lily Pond, York Art Gallery, in bloom until tomorrow (8/9/2024), 10am to 5pm

SUNDAY or bust. This weekend brings to an end the National Gallery’s bicentenary celebrations in tandem with York Art Gallery after close to 70,000 people took up the chance to feel the radiance of French Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s 1899 work, The Water-Lily Pond, the centrepiece and trigger point of this special anniversary exhibition.

On show too are loans from regional and national institutions alongside York Art Gallery collection works and a large-scale commission by contemporary artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Una Sinfonia. Monet’s canvas is explored in the context of 19th-century French open-air painting, pictures by his early mentors and the Japanese prints that transformed his practice and beloved gardens in Giverny. Hurry, hurry to book tickets at yorkartgallery.org.uk.

*Milton Jones: Not short of shirts for his Ha!Milton tour*

Comedy gig of the week: Milton Jones, Ha!Milton, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm

THIS is not a musical. Milton Jones is tone deaf and has no sense of rhythm, he admits, but at least he doesn’t make a song and dance about it. Instead, he has more important things to discuss. Things like giraffes…and there’s a bit about tomatoes.

The shock-haired, loud-shirted master of the one-liner promises a whole new show of daftness. “You know it makes sense,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Will Young: Showcasing Light It Up’s joyous pop at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jamie Noise*

Pop gig of the week: Will Young, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

MARKING the August 9 release of his Light It Up album, Will Young is embarking on his most intimate tour yet, an up-close-and-personal evening of acoustic performances, stories and conversation across 50 dates.

The ten tracks are a return to embracing joyous unashamed pop music for Young, who has teamed up with Scandinavian pop production/writing duo pHD, as well as reuniting with Groove Armada’s Andy Cato and long-term writing partners Jim and Mima Elliot, for “the go-to pop album for a dance, for a cry and for a celebration”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Simon Russell Beale: Shakespeare actor, now starring as Ser Simon Strong in House Of The Dragon, will be in conversation at York Theatre Royal on Tuesday night*

Theatre chat: An Evening With Simon Russell Beale, York Theatre Royal, September 10, 7.30pm

WAS Shakespeare an instinctive “conservative” or, rather, gently subversive? How collaborative was he? Did he add a line to Hamlet to accommodate his ageing and increasingly chubby principal actor Richard Burbage? Did he suffer from insomnia and experience sexual jealousy?

In An Evening With Simon Russell Beale, in conversation with a special guest, the Olivier Award-winning actor will share his experiences of “approaching and living with some of Shakespeare’s most famous characters”, from his school-play days as Desdemona in Othello to title roles in Hamlet and Macbeth. Expect anecdotes of Sam Mendes, Nick Hytner, Stephen Sondheim and Lauren Bacall too. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Ruth Berkoff in The Beauty Of Being Herd, her debut show “for anyone who’s ever found it hard to fit in”. Picture: Alex Kenyon*

Sheep and cheerful: Ruth Berkoff: The Beauty Of Being Herd, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 12, and Terrington Village Hall, near Malton, September 28, both 7.30pm

HAVE you ever felt like an outsider? Hannah has. Her solution? She has decided to live as a sheep. “But don’t worry, she’s thought it all through. She’s even got a raincoat. And she’d love to tell you all about it at her Big Goodbye Party. Everyone is invited,” says Leeds writer-performer Ruth Berkoff, introducing her hour of comedy, original songs, heartfelt sharing and even a rave.

“Whether you’re shy, neurodivergent, have accidentally put your foot in it or simply had to spend time with people that weren’t ‘your people’, this is a show for anyone who’s ever found it hard to fit in.” Box office: York, tickets.41monkgate.co.uk; Terrington, terringtonvillagehall.co.uk.

YORK Stage is ready to rock in the riotous musical based on the 2003 Jack Black film, re-booted with a book by Julian Fellowes, lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, various venues, September 13 to 15

The centenary of French composer Gabriel Fauré’s death will be marked prominently in the five concerts. For the full programme and tickets, go to: ycmf.co.uk.