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Rumours spread and rebellion rises as York Theatre Royal’s new season makes a stand

The Tragedy Of Guy Fawkes playwright David Reed outside the Guy Fawkes Inn in York. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

“THE theatre has always been a place where rebellion thrives,” says chief executive Tom Bird as York Theatre Royal sets its Rumours And Rebels season in commotion.

Two legendary York figures, Guy Fawkes and the Coppergate Woman, will come to life as the spotlight is turned on those who resist, rebel and stand up to injustice, corruption and persecution this summer and autumn.

“We wanted to talk about opposition and intrigue and how ‘sticking it to the man’ manifests itself, which is often in the form of rumours first,” says Tom. “We knew we were going to be doing this strand of work with rebellion shot through it, but we also wanted a nod to the fact that rebellion can start in a more subtle phase with rumour.

“We already had rebellion in the diary with Guy Fawkes, Julius Caesar and Red Ellen, which all start with ‘talk’, and I was thinking about how you’re naturally quite wary of making heroes of people who are seen as terrorists, so I didn’t want the season to be too on the nose in celebrating rebellion without also saying it’s a complicated business.

“Look at Guy Fawkes; we think of him as a York hero but actually he wanted to blow up hundreds of people.”

Long in the planning for its York Theatre Royal world premiere, York-born writer David Reed’s “explosive new comedy about York’s most infamous rebel”, The Tragedy Of Guy Fawkes, will run from October 28 to November 12, directed by Gemma Fairlie as Monty Python meets Blackadder.

“We’ve had the script since before I came here in December 2017,” says Tom. “David [one third of the The Penny Dreadfuls comedy trio] is a local writer; the script is brilliant and funny, and the pre-sale of tickets is fantastic.”

Co-director Juliet Forster, left, and playwright Maureen Lennon with JORVIK Viking Centre’s model of The Coppergate Lady

Further explaining the Rumours And Rebels season title, Tom says: “The other reason for ‘Rumours’ is the impact of social media, where it feels like we’re surrounded by an unsolicited swirl of rumour that could lead to action, even to direct rebellion, like you saw with Trump’s supporters marching on Capitol Hill.

“Uncurated rumours bother us a lot, and that’s why we’re curating the summer and autumn programme under this title to highlight the importance of curation when news has stopped being that and so many people no longer trust experts.  Theatre is a place for resistance and for celebrating it since Athenian times.”

Standing alongside Reed’s Guy Fawkes tragi-comedy in the season ahead will be Maureen Lennon’s community play The Coppergate Woman, wherein a Valkyrie woman with the answers rises again to move among the people of York, a goddess resisting the havoc wrought by pandemic, from July 30 to August 6.

These in-house productions will be preceded by Northern Stage, Nottingham Playhouse and Royal Lyceum Theatre’s touring production of Red Ellen, Carol Bird’s epic story of inspiration Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson, who was forever on the right side of history, forever on the wrong side of life, from May 24 to 28.

“We’re super-excited about Red Ellen, which had been planned by Lorne Campbell before he left Northern Stage to move to the National Theatre of Wales. After The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff, this is another unsung political hero to be celebrated by Northern Stage.”

Flicking through the brochure, in Shakespeare’s Globe’s Julius Caesar, on June 10 and 11, the protagonists fear power running unchallenged as Diane Page directs this brutal tale of ambition, incursion and revolution; in Conor McPherson’s Girl From The North Country, from September 5 to 10, the chimes of freedom flash through a story rooted in Bob Dylan’s songs;  in Pilot Theatre’s revival of Noughts & Crosses, from September 16 to 24, the love between Selby and Callum runs counter to the politics of their segregated world.

In Frantic Assembly’s reimagined 21st century Othello, from October 18 to 22, Othello faces a barrage of racial persecution in Shakespeare’s tragedy of paranoia, sex and murder; the year ends with the Theatre Royal’s third pantomime collaboration with Evolution Productions, where Peter Pan joyously stands up to the tyranny of time, from December 2 to January 2.

York Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird

Delighted to welcome Shakespeare’s Globe, Tom says: “I left the Globe to move here, and as the Roman Quarter project gets underway in Rougier Street, we were interested in doing a Roman-themed work.

“We’d known for a while this would be a rebellion season, and the Globe knew we were keen to link up with them, so they gave us a couple of options. National companies are getting really good at that, and it’s great to have the Globe back for the first time since they did Henry VI.”

Tom says the season fell into place partly through the stars aligning. “If Frantic Assembly’s Othello is on tour, you take it,” he says. “It fitted perfectly with our own choices of Guy Fawkes and [York company] Pilot Theatre reviving Sabrina Mahfouz’s adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses.

“The first tour did really well, there’s since been the TV series, and it’s a story really loved by young audiences as a Romeo & Juliet for the 21st century. It’s a no-brainer to bring it back.”

Bringing a “big show” to York Theatre Royal is not easy, says Tom, given the seating capacity of 750, but that does not deter him from seeking to do so. Take the double Olivier Award-winning West End and Broadway hit Girl From The North Country, written and directed by The Weir playwright Conor McPherson.

He reimagines the songs of Bob Dylan in a universal story of family and love set in the heartland of America in 1934, when a group of wayward souls cross paths in a time-weathered guesthouse in ‘nowheresville’ [Duluth, Minnesota]. As they search for the future and hide from the past, they find themselves facing unspoken truths about the present.

“God we had to fight to get it but I’m seriously glad we did,” says Tom. “It premiered at The Old Vic and it’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Bob Dylan had been badgered for years about doing a jukebox musical, and he said, ‘only if it’s a bit weird’. Luckily, he was involved in Conor getting to do it.

Girl From The North Country: “Doing a Conor McPherson on a Bob Dylan jukebox musical”

“It’s a marriage made in heaven! He does a Conor McPherson on a Bob Dylan jukebox musical: it’s an incredible, haunting story with a cast of odd characters you’d find travelling on a Greyhound bus, when you gather all this eccentricity in America and you can’t escape them, set to Dylan’s songs.

“Everyone knows Bob Dylan songs are sung better when Dylan doesn’t sing them, and for this show, they take a genuine cross section of songs from across his career, not only the Sixties.”

Among further highlights, York Stage will make their Theatre Royal debut in a 40th anniversary production of Howard Ashman and and Alan Menken’s musical Little Shop Of Horrors, from July 14 to 13, and Original Theatre will present Susie Blake as Miss Marple in Rachel Wagstaff’s new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, from October 4 to 8.

“I’d been a bit worried whether a murder mystery is still what people want as we’ve seen that move from drawing-room plays to musicals in audience tastes, but The Mirror Crack’d has gone like a train at the box office,” says Tom.

Summing up the philosophy behind Rumours And Rebels, he concludes : “It’s not easy to have a themed season when we put on such diverse work here, but when we see ways to do seasons with connected themes we will do it, like the Theatre Royal did with seasons focusing on Yorkshire and women before I came here.

“By having a theme, hopefully it will encourage people to see more plays in the season having enjoyed one.

“Overall, for me, what we’re eliminating from York Theatre Royal is the middle-of-the-road. When we bring in touring shows, we might as well go ‘big’, bringing in new audiences; when we produce plays, we’re going to do new work like The Tragedy Of Guy Fawkes and The Coppergate Woman, not Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, which might be my favourite play but wouldn’t get an audience.”

For the full programme and tickets details for Rumours And Rebels at York Theatre Royal, go to: yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Box office: 01904 623568.

Copyright Of The Press, York

Susie Blake as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on English Touring Opera’s La Bohème and The Golden Cockerel, York Theatre Royal

Francesca Chiejina as Mimi and Luciano Botelho as Rodolfo in English Touring Opera’s La Bohème

English Touring Opera, La Bohème, April 8; The Golden Cockerel, April 9, at York Theatre Royal

IT was good to have English Touring Opera back in town. Don’t take my word for it. The Theatre Royal had to open its upper reaches to accommodate the throngs gratefully gathered for professional opera for the first time since Covid struck.

York Opera had led the way in fine style last autumn; ETO followed suit, with a potboiler and an exotic rarity.

Puccini’s La Bohème inevitably relies for its success on the lovers at its heart. The company had cast its net wide before settling on Brazilian tenor Luciano Botelho for the lovelorn Bohemian Rodolfo, casting Nigerian-American soprano Francesca Chiejina as his Mimì.

On this occasion, both began diffidently: it was partly a reflection of the amatory sheepishness of their characters, but also a result of under-projection. Botelho’s tenor disappeared into his head the higher up the range he went, while Chiejina took a while to release the tension in her jaw, which diminished her projection. She left the difficult final note of Act 1 far too early, a sure sign of lacking confidence.

Thereafter both improved and their Act 3 duet by the customs barrier found them much more relaxed and thus less self-conscious.

James Conway’s thoughtful production, revived here by Christopher Moon-Little, was based around deliberately simplistic designs by Florence de Maré (revived by Neil Irish). A large reflective glass panel leaned in on the bohemians’ attic, with the regulation stove in one corner and unusual seating provided by the basket of a hot-air balloon whose sandbags were cushions. Set on tea-chests, these became pillows for Mimì’s deathbed.

These bourgeois boys were well-clothed, affirmation that they would be returning to provincial ways once their salad days were done. In this way, set and production were complementary.

Michel de Souza’s warm baritone made a sympathetic Marcello, who was never going to be fooled by the glamour of Jenny Stafford’s Musetta; she in turn was more hard-edged than flirtatious.

Trevor Eliot Bowes’ pensive Colline and Themba Mvula’s lively Schaunard rounded out the well-balanced bohemians. Chorus members filled the cameo roles very competently and children from the York Music Hub Choir sang pleasingly – rather than the usual shouting – as Parpignol’s acolytes (he was ‘Pa’Guignol’, a Punch-and-Judy man).

Iwan Davies – not the main conductor for the run – stood in with distinction, his clear beat shaping accompaniment that always put the singers’ needs first. His orchestra responded with keen rhythms.

The chorus was in good heart at Café Momus, maintaining discipline amongst the hi-jinks. Despite the lack of outstanding soloists, this was a good, solid Bohème, well worth catching at Gala Theatre, Durham, on May 9 if you missed it this time in York.

Paula Sides as the exotic Queen of Shemakha in English Touring Opera’s The Golden Cockerel

Rimsky-Korsakov was one of the all-time great orchestrators and The Golden Cockerel, his last opera and the only one staged regularly outside Russia, offers plenty of evidence of this. Touring has made a reduced adaptation necessary, which Iain Farrington has handily provided.

It lacked some of the exoticism that a larger orchestra might have offered but kept the vital woodwinds very busy and retained enough glockenspiel glitter for the astrologer’s motif. Gerry Cornelius conducted it lovingly while keeping a good balance between stage and pit.

James Conway’s new production was well-timed. The fairy-tale libretto, based on a Pushkin poem, was sung here in a neatly rhyming translation by Antal Dorati and James Gibson. It tells of half-witted King Dodon’s fear that his country is about to be invaded.

When the work was selected it can hardly have crossed the company’s mind that a terrible real-life sequel would actually ensue. The analogy cannot be pushed too hard, but the exotic Queen of Shemakha – ‘Mother Russia’ it was suggested to me in the interval – does all she can to seduce Dodon and his court, opposed only by the ineffectual General Polkan.

The Astrologer who frames the action reveals at its close that only he and the Queen are real characters, “all the rest were dream, delusion…”. In fact, the opera is better seen as parodying naive techniques in Russian opera and to that extent anticipates Stravinsky’s Petrushka.

Conway did well to stick to the score and not introduce an excess of up-to-date connotations, other than dressing the royal housekeeper Amelka and three of her minions in military khaki. In the designs by Neil Irish, the general wore a Kaiser-style helmet, which implied a pre-First World War setting. The cockerel of the title was mainly perched on a look-out tower, so as to warn of impending invasion. She was appealingly drawn by the nimble Alys Mererid Roberts.

Grant Doyle gave an amusingly doddery Dodon, struggling to hold on to power, with his sons – who accidentally bump each other off in battle – portrayed as Tweedledum and Tweedledee by Thomas Elwin and Jerome Knox.

Amy J Payne was a regular martinet as Amelka, Edward Hawkins made a nicely bumbling Polkan, and Robert Lewis coped valiantly with the ultra-high tenor role of Astrologer, more than faintly reminiscent of Rasputin.

That left the bulk of the serious singing, in Acts 2 and 3, to Paula Sides as the Queen. Her coloratura, deliberately parodistic, hit the spot, and her somewhat shrill tone suited the orientalism of Rimsky’s score.

It was just as well we had English side-titles, as diction was generally less than ideal. The chorus played a full part in keeping the comedy vital, crawling out from under the curtain for their finale.

It has been 37 years since this work was given in Yorkshire, by Opera North, so unless you are young you may want to head to Durham on May 10.                                         

Review by Martin Dreyer

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‘I wanted to be able to write about women of different ages and backgrounds,’ says Michele Lee. Cue Rice at York Theatre Royal

From antipathy to friendship: Angela Yeoh, as Yvette, left, and Anya Jaya-Murphy, as Nisha, in Michele Lee’s Rice

RICE, Michele Lee’s humorous observation on gender, globalisation, family and friendship, plays York Theatre Royal tonight and tomorrow.

Winner of the Australian Writers’ Guild Award for Best Original Stage Play, Lee’s story focuses on the powerful – if unlikely – bond between an ambitious young businesswoman and her office cleaner as they navigate the complexities of their lives and the world at large.

Nisha (Anya Jaya-Murphy), a headstrong hotshot executive at Golden Fields, Australia’s largest producer of rice, is determined to become the first female Indian chief executive officer in Australia.

She is close to sealing a contract with the Indian government in a secret deal worth billions that would see her company take over India’s national rice distribution system.

Working late nights in the office, she encounters Yvette (Angela Yeoh), an older Chinese migrant, who cleans up her mess. Yvette has her own entrepreneurial ambitions, but her daughter faces court after participating in a protest against the unethical practices of a national supermarket chain.

“I’ve always wanted to centre a story around two strong female actors of colour and that was my starting point,” says Michele. “In this play their characters traverse a range of identities and jump between and transform across many different roles.

“I feel exhilarated that this drama is being staged on opposite sides of the world and hope its universal themes around gender, ambition and friendship will resonate with audiences in the UK.”

The British production is being mounted by Actors Touring Company and Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in association with Plymouth Theatre Royal, under the direction of ATC artistic director Matthew Xia.

“Maybe maybe I’m kind of hopeful because ultimately the play ends in a mostly hopeful way,” says playwright Michele Lee

“It feels fantastic after this pandemic-enforced hiatus to finally be back touring shows again,” he says of a tour that already has visited Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre on March 4 and 5 in its first North Yorkshire showcase.

“I’m looking forward to introducing this dynamic and expansive drama, which stays true to ATC’s mission in bringing fresh dialogue and perspectives from different cultures and intersections to audiences up and down the country.”

Hmong-Australian writer Michele Lee tells stories through theatre, live art, audio and on screen, exploring otherness, Asian identity and found families, usually through “contemporary narratives that privilege the experiences of women and people of colour”.

“The play began with me thinking about these roles of power that don’t tend to be diverse,” she says. “When I was beginning to write plays, it was against a backdrop of people of colour being limited in what they could be cast for because, in the plays that were being written, they were never more than the side role.

“Whereas I wanted to be able to write about women of different ages and different backgrounds, and with Rice, it’s not too much of a stretch of the imagination to consider what could connect people in different ways.”

Michele did “heaps of research”. “I went to India; I met a farming advocacy group; an Australian crop baron, who had a variety of crops, not just rice, and he was interesting because he was educated in agricultural science,” she says.

“His parents were farmers but had studied the business side and this was indicative of how things had changed from when people who farmed lived in villages pre-industrial revolution.

“The play is an exposition of some of the real-world issues, focusing on two women who are spiky and that really resonated with me.”

Addressing universal themes around gender, ambition and friendship: Anya Jaya-Murphy’s businesswoman Nisha, left, and Angela Yeoh’s cleaner Yvette in Rice

Michele is a writer of Southeast Asian descent. “My background is Hmong, a diaspora of stateless people, with that diaspora being due to war,” she says. “My dad came out to Canberra as a student on an Australian government scholarship, and my mum was allowed to join him on a humanitarian visa. After the Hmong were exposed as ‘anti-Communist for supporting the Americans’ in the Vietnam war, she had fled to a refugee camp.”

Born into 1980s’ Australia, Michele grew up in Canberra as one of only 4,000 Hmong people in Australia. “I’m an Australian citizen, and I’ve written stuff that’s autobiographical, but with Rice I’m writing about people who are ‘absented’ in Australia,” she says.

“They are two women from different Asian backgrounds with differences in how they appear and the cultures they come from, but they overlap more than they don’t, and though it starts off with their antipathy, maybe I’m kind of hopeful because ultimately the play ends in a mostly hopeful way when they’d started off not being friendly.

“The cynic in me says that would never happen, but there’s a wider hope and aspiration to allow them to look for friendship.”

Michele enjoyed writing for the two-hander format. “There’s no relief because there’s no-one providing a third voice,” she says. “It heightens the intensity, and though there are moments of levity, it allows for frank discussions.”

She did not make it to the London run but travelled over to Britain from her Melbourne home last month when the regional dates were underway with a different cast and new touring set. “I got to Liverpool on the Friday, feeling very zonked, and saw it on the Saturday, feeling less zonked. I enjoyed it,” she says.

“It’s hard to separate my inner critic, always looking for something wrong about it, when I should be thinking, ‘what do I like about it?’, and there’s plenty!”

Actors Touring Company and Orange Tree Theatre present Michele Lee’s Rice, York Theatre Royal, tonight (13/4/2022) and tomorrow at 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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When Harry met Christine on York Theatre Royal stage for a grand Yorkshire night out

In the news: Christine Talbot and Harry Gration

YORKSHIRE broadcasting legends Harry Gration and Christine Talbot host a journey down memory lane at York Theatre Royal tonight on a rare occasion when these friends but former news-breaking rivals will have presented together.

Once the familiar faces of the BBC’s Look North and ITV’s rival Calendar respectively, the duo will be looking back at memorable stories, plus a smattering of their crazier fundraising exploits, from tandem rides and a sofa push to Harry being tied to weather presenter Paul Hudson for days on end.

Special guests at A Grand Yorkshire Night Out will be production team members from the original All Creatures Great And Small series, vet Julian Norton, Leeds band The Dunwells and Harry’s musical son, Harrison, singing songs from the shows.

“I’ve never done anything on stage, apart from when I was 11 at dance school,” says Christine, 52. “I stuck to the TV studio, but seeing this theatre at the press launch, what a beautiful place it is. It’s going to be fun to be on that stage. There’ll be a lot of ad-libbing on the night to go with everything we’ve planned and we just want everyone to have a nice, relaxing time.”

Son of York Harry, 71, is no stranger to the St Leonard’s Place building. “It’s a place I’ve been coming to for so many years to see shows or occasionally be on stage,” he says. Not only on stage, but Harry was a fixture in the infamous film sequences in Berwick Kaler’s pantomimes too.

How did A Grand Yorkshire Night Out take shape? “We’d been talking about doing a show as soon Christine announced she’d be leaving Calendar,” recalls Harry. “I got in touch to say, ‘should we do something together?’ as we’d always discussed the possibility but had been working on opposite sides of the TV world in Yorkshire, though we did do a joint Look North and Calendar broadcast on the first anniversary of the Covid pandemic.”

Christine says: “We’ve always been friends, we’ve never been rivals, and I’ve always had great relationships with all of the news teams on both Calendar and Look North. A lot of them cross over between the two programmes.”

Covering Yorkshire is a newshound’s dream: in a nutshell, biggest county, big, big stories. “You can say almost with total confidence that there’ll be ten belting stories in Yorkshire each year,” says Harry.

“We’ve met and interviewed fantastic people over the years, and we’ll be talking about those experiences in this show,” says Christine.

Harry Gration and Christine Talbot on stage at York Theatre Royal on their press day

The duo had looked at the format of one-man and one-woman shows around the Yorkshire patch, coming to the conclusion it would be better to broaden the focus, combining their stories with a celebration of God’s Own Country. “We didn’t want it to be just us but a Yorkshire show with good chat and brilliant music,” says Harry.

“That’s why, as well as clips from the shows down the years and some funny stuff, we’ve got some amazing guests like Julian Norton, from The Yorkshire Vet, and members of the production crew from the BBC’s original All Creatures Great And Small, director Tony Virgo and production manager Mike Darbon, and author Oliver Crocker, who’s written All Memories Great And Small.

“For the music, we have The Dunwells, from Leeds, who have an EP coming out at the same time, and my son Harrison, who’s 18 now and training to be an opera singer at the Royal Academy of Music. He’ll be singing popular songs.”

Looking back over his days in the TV studios, Harry says: “When I started , the way I presented was very formal, but later I became more animated. Des Lynam was my hero – I did a few Grandstands in the 1980s – and I loved his presenting style, though I’m not sure you could get away now with some of the things he said.

“It’s more scripted now. You have to be careful, more than ever before, about quips with you co-presenters. There’s a lot more sensitivity.”

Christine notes how she changed from her early days. “When I left Calendar they did a look back at when I started, when my voice sounded so posh after I moved over from the BBC!” she says.

“People have to be able to connect with you and see you as a friend when they watch as you become part of people’s lives, where they’re used to seeing you in the corner of their living room each night, so you have to be relatable.

“Wherever we go, people will come up and say ‘Hi’ because they feel they know you well, and I really like it that they do that, and in a sense, A Grand Yorkshire Night Out is an extension of that.”

The show, nevertheless, is something of a journey into the unknown for Harry and Christine. “Is it a gamble?” Harry ponders. “Well, it is in one sense as we don’t know how many people will turn up, but we can guarantee we will relate to the audience, respond to how they react, as we all celebrate our region.”

Have they missed presenting the news since their TV exits? “The thing I found really strange at first was not having that structure to the day, missing the Calendar team, that family, after being in one place for 30 years, but since then doors have opened up and you have to shake the tree and see what falls out,” says Christine.

The Dunwells: Heading over from Leeds to York tonight

“Various projects are in the book, like doing an on-stage chat show at the Great Yorkshire Show, and I’m on the board of the children’s hospital in Leeds and Harrogate Flower Show.”

Harry “doesn’t really miss” presenting Look North. “I felt I’d gone as far as I could with it, and at 70 it was the natural time to go,” he says. “Ultimately, I would have been having to compete for a job with Amy [Garcia}, and I didn’t want to go down that line.

“I don’t ever wake up thinking I wish I was working there today. I don’t want to do broadcast news now. I see where I am now as semi-retirement: I still get to do lots of things and I’ll be going to a lot of cricket.”

Tonight’s show may be A Grand Yorkshire Night Out but Christine has a confession to make. “I’m from the wrong side of the Pennines – I was born Christine Standish, near Wigan – but luckily I’ve been welcomed with open arms and I’ve lived here in Yorkshire longer than anywhere else. My daughter was born at Jimmy’s [St James’s Hospital] in Leeds, so hopefully I have my Yorkshire passport now!”

Harry’s career path took him to BBC Southampton for four years. “I loved it but I came back north in 1999, and Yorkshire really has been the only place I’d want to be. The twins, Harvey and Harrison, are probably not going to come back to live in York; one’s at Exeter University, the other’s in London, but my wife Helen’s businesses are in Yorkshire, running two children’s nurseries in York and two in Leeds, and York is our home.”

As for Christine: “I’d never dare leave Yorkshire. My husband’s a Huddersfield Town fan!” she says.

A Grand Yorkshire Night Out with Harry Gration & Christine Talbot, York Theatre Royal, tonight (11/4/2022), 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Bach’s St John Passion, English Touring Opera, York Theatre Royal, April 6

Luci Briginshaw: “Laudably managed to infuse musicality into her arias despite the speedy tempos”

WHEN Bach’s St John Passion is given during Lent, one expects an evening of concentration on Christianity’s central event, enhanced by the composer’s incomparable music.

Gratitude that English Touring Opera had scheduled this music at all during its spring tour – the first Bach passion here since the pandemic – quickly dissolved in the reality of what was involved in this ‘semi-staging’, directed by James Conway.

The theatre’s stage had been cleared to the back wall, which allowed York Theatre Royal Choir, augmented by the Chapter House Youth Choir, to fill the bleachers at the back, with 15 members of the Old Street Band spread across the stage in front of them, leaving soloists and conductor nearest the audience.

It did not matter that this was a hybrid performance, with choruses and arias sung in German and the chorales sung in English, in new translations specially commissioned from such as the former Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the former Dean of Exeter, Dr Jonathan Draper. Some of their paraphrases were colourful.

What disfigured this performance were the antics of the conductor, Jonathan Peter Kenny. His flamboyant, grandiose gestures might be generously described as bordering on the balletic but were rarely less than manic. He was clearly determined that the evening was about him and him only.

Unwilling to be patronised by such histrionics, choir and orchestra paid him scant attention. The audience did not have that choice and the evening was best experienced with eyes closed. Even then, Kenny’s adrenaline regularly ran out of control so that tempos were mostly on the dangerous side of rapid.

When the ‘Kreuzige’ (Crucify) chorus, for example, is delivered prestissimo, it loses most of its impact, the singers given no time to crunch the ‘Kr’ or hiss the ‘z’ in the word ‘Kreuzige’ as Bach intended. Under this assault, the choirs survived remarkably well, with the Chapter House Youth providing an occasional semi-chorus in chorales. Any raggedness was inflicted from outside.

The Evangelist duties were mainly shared between Richard Dowling and Thomas Elwin, both highly competent, although cantering through their narratives with little regard to nuance. Peter’s weeping, for example, was cursory rather than deeply felt.

Occasionally the soprano Luci Briginshaw took on some of the recitative but whenever Jesus was in focus – at his death, for example – his character was entrusted to countertenor Tim Morgan. It was a directorial fancy and not altogether persuasive, but pardonable. Briginshaw laudably managed to infuse some musicality into her arias despite the speedy tempos.

Christus himself was sung rather matter-of-factly by Edward Hawkins, although he was not given much space to develop gravitas and he sang one aria with aplomb. By far the best German, and hence also the best characterisation, came from Bradley Travis, who gave a suitably weak-kneed Peter as well as a forthright Pilate.

There was a good deal of wandering around from the soloists, all of whom were dressed in everyday rig, accompanied by a fair amount of hugging and even hand-holding. None of it amounted to much dramatically.

The orchestra kept its cool remarkably, and duets from flutes and oboes were eloquent, with some lovely theorbo during the evening serenade in the garden and a cellist who doubled adeptly on gamba.

The musical benefits seemed to have been achieved despite, rather than because of, the conductor. If he is to be used again by this company, he must be firmly tethered in the pit where he is largely out of sight of the paying public. What he did at this performance was outrageous and totally out of keeping with the seriousness of the setting.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as the eyes have it in museum’s new Roman display. List No. 77, courtesy of The Press

The Roman bust, key handle, plumb bob and horse and rider from the Ryedale Hoard at the Yorkshire Museum, York

FROM Roman remnants to re-discovered early Pink Floyd gems, Charles Hutchinson reveals highlights of the week ahead.

Exhibition of the week: The Ryedale Hoard, Yorkshire Museum, Museum Gardens, York, open daily during half-term, then Tuesday to Saturday from April 25

THE Yorkshire Museum has re-opened with the new exhibition The Ryedale Hoard: A Roman Mystery. For the first time, visitors can see some of Yorkshire’s most significant Roman objects, while exploring an intriguing archaeological mystery: who buried them 1,800 years ago?

Discovered by metal detectorists, on permanent show are a rare bust, made to adorn the top of a sceptre and thought to show Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from AD 161 to 180. An intricate figurine of a horse and rider, probably made in Britain, represents the god Mars.

A horse-shaped handle for a key, for magical purposes, may have been deliberately broken before burial. A plumb bob, large and finely created, would have been a weight for establishing a “plumb” vertical line. To book tickets: yorkshiremuseum.org.

Living for today: Bite My Thumb Theatre Company in Rent The Musical at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre

York musical of the week: Bite My Thumb Theatre Company in Rent The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm

ARTISTIC director Neil Knipe directs Bite My Thumb in a spring tour of Jonathan Larson’s ground-breaking 1994 American musical about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today.

Set in the East Village of New York City, Rent follows a year in the life of a bohemian group of impoverished young artists, struggling to survive as they negotiate their dreams, loves and conflicts. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

 Forever thinking up new rules for Crunchem Hall Primary School: Joshua Lewis’s headmistress Miss Trunchbull in Ryedale Youth Theatre’s Matilda Jr The Musical

Ryedale musical of the week: Ryedale Youth Theatre in Matilda Jr The Musical, Tuesday to Saturday, 7pm; 3pm matinees, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

BORN with astonishing wit, intelligence, a vivid imagination and special powers, school pupil Matilda rebels against the mean, monstrous, rule-ridden regime of headteacher Miss Trunchbull.

Scripted by Dennis Kelly with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, Matilda Jr is packed with multiple featured roles. Given the profusion of young Ryedale talent, director Chloe Shipley has decided on double casting to give everyone who auditioned the opportunity to perform in the principal parts. Box office: yourboxoffice.co.uk.

BalletBoyz: Deluxe dance delight at Grand Opera House, York, on Monday

Dance return of the week: BalletBoyz Deluxe, Grand Opera House, York, Monday, 7.30pm

MICHAEL Nunn and William Trevitt’s BalletBoyz return to York with what began as the boisterous, bold company’s 20th anniversary show but is now running into a 23rd year.

Eight young dancers interweave in two mesmeric dances, fused with the BalletBoyz’ trademark witty use of film and behind-the-scenes content.

Deluxe features a commission from choreographer Xie Xin and composer Jiang Shaofeng, followed by a collaboration between Punchdrunk’s Maxine Doyle with jazz musician and composer Cassie Kinoshi, from SEED Ensemble. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Dance, dance, wherever they may be, they are the Lord Of The Dance dancers, arriving for a four-night run at York Barbican

Anniversary show of the week: Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance, York Barbican, Monday to Thursday, 8pm

MICHAEL Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance show is “going to the next level” in 2022 for its 25th anniversary travels, wherein high-energy Irish dancing combines with original music, storytelling and sensuality.

Expect new staging, costumes and choreography plus cutting-edge technology, special effects and lighting, in a production featuring 40 young performers directed by Flatley, dancing to new compositions by Gerard Fahy as tradition meets the excitement of the innovative. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

News headliners: Harry Gration and Christine Talbot fronting A Grand Yorkshire Night Out at York Theatre Royal

Yorkshire event of the week: A Grand Yorkshire Night Out with Harry Gration & Christine Talbot, York Theatre Royal, Monday, 7.30pm

YORKSHIRE broadcasting legends Harry Gration and Christine Talbot, formerly of the BBC’s Look North and ITV’s rival Calendar respectively, join forces to host a journey down memory lane on a rare occasion these friends will have presented together.

The duo look back at memorable stories, plus a smattering of their crazier fundraising exploits, from tandem rides and a sofa push to Harry being tied to weather presenter Paul Hudson for days on end. 

Special guests will be production team members from the original All Creatures Great And Small series, Leeds band The Dunwells and Harry’s musical son, Harrison, singing songs from the shows. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Barry Humphries: Revealing The Man Behind The Mask in first performance for three years

Confessions of the week: Barry Humphries, The Man Behind The Mask, Grand Opera House, York, Wednesday, 7.30pm

BARRY Humphries takes to the stage for the first time in three years on Wednesday to reveal The Man Behind The Mask, playing the Grand Opera House in the only Yorkshire show of his 2022 tour

The Australian actor, comedian, satirist, artist, author and national treasure, aged 88, conducts a revelatory trip through his colourful life and theatrical career in an intimate, confessional evening, seasoned with highly personal, sometimes startling and occasionally outrageous stories of Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson, four marriages et al. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets: Re-visiting Pink Floyd’s early days

Pink Floyd show of the week: Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, York Barbican, August 16, 7.30pm

PINK Floyd drummer Nick Mason teams up with Spandau Ballet guitarist Gary Kemp, Guy Pratt, Lee Harris and Dom Beken for this re-arranged show with original tickets still valid.

The 2022 tour finds Mason and co further expanding their repertoire on a journey of Pink Floyd re-discovery, playing songs from their early catalogue up to the 1972 album Obscured By Clouds. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Oh, and another thing

THIS is the second weekend of York Open Studios, 10am to 5pm today and tomorrow. Go discover at yorkopenstudios.co.uk.

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English Touring Opera to perform Puccini’s La Boheme and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel at York Theatre Royal

Tragic love story: English Touring Opera in La Boheme

ENGLISH Touring Opera’s residency at York Theatre Royal this week is underway.

Last night, ETO artistic director James Conway combined professional soloists and baroque specialists The Old Street Band with singers from York choirs in an inspiring staging of St John Passion that highlighted the sharp storytelling and intense vision of hope in Bach’s oratorio.

Among the choirs taking art was the York Theatre Royal Choir, singing on home turf in the 7.30pm performance.

Tomorrow (8/4/2022), ETO presents La Bohème, Giacomo Puccini’s opera about a poet who falls in love with a consumptive seamstress. In a story of young love that starts on a festive, snowy Christmas Eve night in a Parisian garret, the lovers draw close but poverty forces them apart. 

Conway describes this cultural touchstone throughout the world as “a poignant memory in music of love and loss – like a shard of mirror in which one sees one’s youth”.

ETO’s return to York Theatre Royal concludes with a lively new production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s comic Russian fantasy The Golden Cockerel on Saturday.

Paula Sides’s Queen of Shemakha in English Touring Opera’s The Golden Cockerel

This send-up of corruption and sloth in government holds up a mirror to the last days of the Romanovs. “Despite its political edge, which meant it fell foul of the Tsarist censors, the music is daringly sensual and erotic at points,” says Conway of the first Rimsky-Korsakov work to be produced and toured by ETO. “For many, it’s an undiscovered joy of an opera.”

“Fantasy, mischief and musical delight combine in the composer’s final and favourite opera, based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin. The score is bursting with the exotic orchestrations that made Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Scheherezade so popular.”

ETO’s new music director, Gerry Cornelius, conducts Conway’s production, starring baritone Grant Doyle (last with ETO for Verdi’s Macbeth in 2019) as the indolent Emperor Dodon and soprano Paula Sides as the seductive Queen of Shemakha.

In the cast too are Edward Hawkins, Amy J Payne, Robert Lewis, Luci Briginshaw and Alys Mererid Roberts in the title role.

Tickets for the 7.30pm performances are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Martin Dreyer will be reviewing all three performances for CharlesHutchPress.

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Dame Berwick is back in The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose but could his pantomime team be broken up at Grand Opera House?

Grand Opera House return for Dame Berwick Kaler, pictured in last winter’s Dick Turpin Rides Again

DAME Berwick Kaler will pull on his big bovver boots for his second Grand Opera House pantomime, but will his “Famous In York Five” reunite?

The grand dame, 75, definitely will be joined in The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose by indomitable villain David Leonard and ‘luvverly Brummie’ AJ Powell, but two fellow regulars in the Kaler panto fixtures and fittings are yet to be confirmed. Or not.

“Further casting will be announced soon” is the official line. Watch this space for news of Kaler’s perennial sidekick, Martin Barrass, and principal golden gal Suzy Cooper as the Grand Opera House pantomime moves on to a new producer, UK Productions, after only one year under the Crossroads Pantomimes umbrella.

Dame Berwick and dastardly David will be on hand to launch ticket sales at the Cumberland Street theatre from 10am on Wednesday, April 13.

“I can’t wait to welcome Me Babbies and Bairns back to the Grand Opera House,” enthused Kaler, Britain’s longest-running dame. “But be warned – I’m under the not unreasonable delusion that I’m far too young to play a granny! So, brace yourself to expect the unexpected.”

Last December, Kaler returned to the York pantomime stage for the first time since February 2019, writing, directing and starring as dame Dotty Donut in Dick Turpin Rides Again alongside Barrass, Cooper, Leonard and Powell in their debut Grand Opera House panto.

Unlike so many pantomimes, they navigated the winter Covid wave without losing any performances or principal performers until the final week when both Kaler and Barrass had to step down after testing positive (despite experiencing no symptoms). In came Scotsmen Alan McHugh and Jack Buchanan, from the His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, pantomime cast, to play dame and stooge respectively.

Kaler had exited the York Theatre Royal pantomime stage bereft after 40 years, announcing The Grand Old Dame would be his farewell, but soon regretted his retirement decision, even more so after writing and co-directing the 2019-2020 show, Sleeping Beauty.

Pantomime villain David Leonard: Launching ticket sales for The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose with Berwick Kaler at the Grand Opera House on April 13

Dame Berwick and co duly signed up for Qdos Pantomimes’ new partnership with the Grand Opera House in January 2020 in the most sensational crosstown transfer since Denis Law swapped Manchester United for Manchester City in 1973.

The pandemic put a spoke in Dick Turpin’s planned return ride in 2020, and Qdos Pantomimes had been taken over by Crossroads Pantomimes by the time the show did go ahead last winter.

Now, Berwick will be back once more, presenting his second ageing variation on a Mother Goose theme after Old Mother Goose at York Theatre Royal in December 2014. It is yet to be confirmed if it will still be a traditional Kaler triple-threat show as star, writer and director or whether UK Productions will shake up the formula, not only in the casting but in the production team too.

In the meantime, the Grand Opera House publicity machine invites you to “discover for yourself why Berwick and his team have become a true rock of family entertainment over many decades with their hilarious anarchic approach to pantomime. It’s wonderfully madcap and is truly enjoyed by all ages. You may not remember the plot, but you will remember the laughs during the winter months.”

Producers UK Production have presented Christmas pantomimes across Great Britain for nigh on 30 years. During the 2022/23 season, they will produce 11 pantomimes of their own and provide productions to around another 30 nationwide.

Producer Martin Dodd said: “It is truly a privilege to be working with the legendary Berwick Kaler and his co-stars, including the deliciously devilish David Leonard and the lovely Brummie AJ Powell with further casting to be announced.

“I really am excited to be presenting this fabulously unique and much-loved pantomime that is as much a part of the York Christmas tradition as Turkey (or Goose!) and stuffing. We can promise a cracking good show full of laughter, music, and mayhem”.

The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose will run from December 10 2022 to January 8 2023. Next Wednesday morning’s general sale launch will be preceded by Priority TheatreCard Membership tickets from Monday, April 11. Prices will start at £13 at atgtickets.com/York or on 0844 871 7615.

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How America and Britain bonded magically for Penn & Teller’s hit show with Mischief

Magic Goes Wrong: Magical mayhem at York Theatre Royal from April 26

AMERICAN comedy magicians Penn & Teller have been sawing the magic rulebook in half for five decades. Now they have teamed up with British masters of mishap Mischief for Magic Goes Wrong, heading for York Theatre Royal on tour from April 26 to May 1.

Teller, 74, and Penn Jillette, 67, have long specialised in combining bamboozling illusions with dark comedy, their magic often seeming to go horribly wrong in its combination of comic danger, sometimes gore, even violence.

Their notorious habit of repeatedly revealing to the audience exactly how their tricks work has long prevented the duo from being members of the Magic Circle. Not that they mind. Far from it. patter-merchant Penn and the silent Teller revel in the illusion of chaos, typified by one of their stage shows beginning with a giant fridge falling on the pair, apparently crushing them. 

Meanwhile, the Mischief team of Henry Shields, Henry Lewis, and Jonathan Sayer have delivered such calamitous comedy hits as The Play That Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, along with the BBC One series The Goes Wrong Show, where the comedy is rooted in the show-must-go-on spirit of the straight-faced cast members determinedly defying everything collapsing around them.

Penner & Tell plus Mischief equalled the perfect match in the making. Sure enough, in 2019, the Americans announced they would be teaming up with the Brits. Cue Magic Goes Wrong opening in the West End, London, and subsequently casting a spell on tour.

How did the marriage in magical mayhem come to fruition? A few years ago, Penn & Teller were performing in London when Penn’s family decided they wanted to see a West End show. “I don’t go to comedy theatre at all,” recalls Penn.

Penn & Teller: Revelling in the illusion of chaos

“I like theatre to be deadly dull, slow and depressing, but my wife and children picked The Play That Goes Wrong. I realised that not only was my family laughing harder than I’ve ever seen them, but I was too.” Immediately, he told Teller to book a ticket. 

Despite being known for his onstage silence, it was Teller who started discussions with Shields, Lewis and Sayer, Mischief’s artistic directors. “I am more shy than Teller, so it never crossed my mind to go backstage,” says Penn. “But Teller took himself backstage and said, ‘hey I’m a star’!”

Teller insists it was a somewhat different story: “As I was sitting in my seat, someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘You’re Teller, aren’t you? The cast wants to give you free ice cream’. So, afterwards, I went backstage to thank the cast and compliment them, because it really was one of the finest shows I’ve ever seen.”

What’s more, Penn had mentioned to Teller that the show featured a magic trick. “He told me there’s a moment where a person reappears in a grandfather clock, and it’s going to fool you,” Teller explains. “And he was right. It absolutely fooled me. So, I said to the Mischief guys, ‘You do stuff that is so much like magic, we should do something together sometime’.” 

A few months later, all five of them were eating homemade pancakes at Teller’s Las Vegas house and plotting a new stage show. Working with unfamiliar people was a new experience for Penn & Teller who, despite decades in show business, rarely collaborate beyond the two of them. Teller has directed two Shakespeare plays, as well as a documentary film, but for Penn it was nerve-wracking. 

What could possibly go wrong? Magic Goes Wrong up to its tricks on tour

“Teller and I have a dynamic that we’ve built over 46 years, so this was a huge leap of faith,” he says. “We couldn’t go out to dinner with these guys; we had to jump straight into bed. We were told: ‘they are going to be here at 10am on Wednesday and you’ll start writing your show. You won’t even know which one is Jonathan and which ones are Henry [times two]. But it took about 20 minutes before I felt like I was around my closest friends.”

Shields, Lewis and Sayer spent a week and a half putting together the show’s bones in a small side room off the stage of The Rio hotel, where Penn & Teller are the longest-running headline act in Las Vegas history. Penn & Teller taught the team magic – “they picked it up incredibly quickly” – and  suggested tricks to include, while the Mischief trio improvised dialogue and story. 

Just as Mischief were excited to be working with two of their heroes, Penn & Teller were no less in awe of Mischief’s talent.  “There was one moment Henry (Lewis) and Jonathan said, ‘it could kind of go like this’, and then the two of them did a five-minute improvisation,” recalls Penn.

“Now, I have sat in a room with Lou Reed playing Sweet Jane four feet from me. I’ve talked to Richard Feynman about physics. I’ve spoken to Bob Dylan. But I said, ‘this is a moment I will bookmark for the rest of my life’.

“I felt like I was watching the Pythons at their peak, and I thought, ‘this is why I’m in showbiz: to be that near that level of talent and skill’. And when I’m on my deathbed listing the 100 artistic events of my life, that moment will be there.”

Tricky! Magic Goes Wrong combines the trick that goes wrong with the trick that dazzles the audience

Roll on a few more sessions and the show had come together, its storyline built around a disastrous fundraising benefit. However, by adding the trademark Goes Wrong approach, all the tricks had to work on two levels: there had to be the trick that goes wrong, and then the trick that dazzles the audience.

How did they devise these illusions? As Teller explains, the process can be laborious. “You get an idea, which is usually quite grand, then you find that it’s impossible, and you revise it over and over again until it works.

“There’s a trick in the show where one of the cast members gets accidentally sawed in half by a buzzsaw. That was more than a year of work. Part of the trick involves blood, but if you just show the blood on stage, it looks boring; it has no impact at all.

“So a big part of the buzzsaw trick for us was developing it in such a way that when the blood came, it would be sprayed up against a huge backdrop where you could truly enjoy the bright red colour.”

While on the subject of blood and buzzsaws, Magic Goes Wrong is more comically gory than Mischief’s previous work. Was that Penn and Teller’s influence? “Guilty!” says Penn. 
“I’m afraid it might have something to do with us,” Teller admits. “We think that gore is essentially funny. It’s really hard to pull off serious gore in the theatre because people tend to want to laugh. They know that it’s fake, but they see that it looks real. And that’s very much like a magic trick.”

“We don’t ever allow the possibility of something going seriously wrong because if we did, we wouldn’t have been working successfully for 46 years,” says Teller

Penn & Teller’s work thrives on this clash of instinct and intellect. “What you want to do is get the visceral and the intellectual to collide as fast as possible,” says Penn. “It’s like being on a rollercoaster: I’m safe; no, I’m not; I’m safe; no, I’m not. Those two parts of your body are fighting.”

Despite Mischief and Penn & Teller having built their careers on making it appear that everything is going horrifically wrong, they insist that mishaps are incredibly rare in real life. “While we’re rehearsing, we might get a minor cut or bruise,” says Teller. “But we don’t ever allow the possibility of something going seriously wrong because if we did, we wouldn’t have been working successfully for 46 years.”

Indeed absence of safety angers Penn & Teller, who show disdain for “edgy’ magicians who put themselves in actual physical danger, even lampooning them in the show with the character of The Blade, who puts his limbs on the line for art’s sake.

“If you want to see someone actually get hurt, go watch NASCAR [ferocious high-speed car racing with frequent crashes],” says Penn. “If you want your art to be dangerous, stay away from me.” 

Teller concurs: “Anytime I hear that in the making of a movie somebody was actually injured or killed, I’m angry about that, because art is what you do for fun.” The paradox of the magician duo’s work, and of Magic Goes Wrong too, is that everything must be incredibly safe precisely in order to make it look so dangerous.

Magic Goes Wrong: “A full magic show and a full comedy show,” says Penn

For Penn, what makes Magic Goes Wrong so right is the combination of magic and comedy. “It’s a full magic show and a full comedy show happening at the same time,” he says.

Teller highlights a deeper, more unexpected layer to the show: “What’s interesting to me is how well it reflects the actual culture of the magic world,” he says. “It’s mostly populated by well meaning, very nice amateurs. And there is a great, heart-tugging beauty about that to me.

“The poignancy of the magic trick that isn’t quite achieved, where your aspirations are to behave in a godlike manner, and instead you’re slapped in the face by reality – I think that’s such a beautiful thing. That’s what this show is about. It has all these laughs and all these wild, crazy moments, but when it lands at the end, it’s about the sweetness of friends who love magic.”

Mischief and Penn & Teller’s Magic Goes Wrong appears at York Theatre Royal from April 26 and vanishes from York after May 1; performances, 7.30pm, plus 2pm, Thursday, and 2.30pm, Saturday. Please note, show co-creators Penn & Teller will not be appearing on stage.

What happens in Magic Goes Wrong?

A HAPLESS gang of magicians is staging an evening of grand illusions to raise money for charity, but as the magic turns to mayhem, accidents spiral out of control, so does the fundraising target. Cue dare-devil stunts, jaw-dropping feats and magical mishaps.

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Take a seat. It’s time for rhyme in Oi Frog & Friends’ school chaos at York Theatre Royal

Rhyme and reason: Frog makes the rules on a chaotic day at Sittingbottom School in Oi Frog & Friends!

ON a new day at Sittingbottom School, Frog is looking for a place to sit, but Cat has other ideas and Dog is happy to play along. Cue multiple rhyming rules and chaos when Frog is placed in in charge in Oi Frog & Friends! at York Theatre Royal today and tomorrow. 

Suitable for age three upwards, this 55-minute, action-packed play comes with original songs, puppets, laughs and “more rhyme than you can shake a chime at”.

The Olivier Award-nominated, fun-filled musical has been transferred to the stage by Emma Earle, Zoe Squire, Luke Bateman and Richy Hughes from Kes Gray and Jim Field’s hit picture books.

Those Oi Frog! books – Oi Cat!, Oi Dog!, Oi Duck-billed Platypus!, Oi Puppies! and Oi Aardvark! among them – revel in rhyming, prompted by “the cliché that underpins so many childhoods” that frogs sit on logs and cats sit on mats, says Gray.

From this starting point, Gray and Field sough to explain to the world where other animals sat in this realm of rhyming recliners. Cue more than one million book sales. One million!  “I keep trying to think of it as if it’s a massive stadium full of people holding a copy of the book, then doing that ten times over,” contemplates illustrator Field.

Now, Frog, Dog, Cat and their chair-shunning cohorts have leapt from page to stage in a stage show produced by Kenny Wax Family Entertainment, the company behind theatrical conversions of The Worst Witch, Hetty Feather and What The Ladybird Heard, adapted by the creative team of director Earle and designer Squire (of Pins and Needles Productions), composer Bateman and lyricist Hughes.

Cue a nomination for the Olivier Award for Best Family Show in 2020. “We didn’t see it coming,” says Gray. “When we were asked ‘Can we put it on stage?’, I thought, ‘I don’t know, can you?’ We certainly don’t know because we don’t create theatre, we create books.”

Field says: “It’s amazing to see what’s happened. If you adapted it directly from the books, the show would only be about 15 minutes long, so they’ve created a backstory around the characters. There’s a whole life for Cat that we never knew about. It really has given it a new life and greater depth. And all the songs they’ve come up with as well!”

The Oi Frog & Friends! stage adaptation mixes drama, puppetry, jokes, rhymes and songs in drawing from the first four books to tell its story of a day at Sittingbottom School, where chaos reigns when Frog decides he might not want to perch his bottom on a log.

“We know the medium of the books but theatre is a different medium, so we have had to let somebody else run with it where they have the expertise,” says Field. “That’s their specialty. We were involved at the early stages, but we’ve let the people who know what they’re doing bring it to life.”

Nevertheless, they kept more than one eye on proceedings, Gray focusing on the narrative and chronology of the piece to be performed to a young audience “who are super bright, retain so much information and will know instinctively whether what a character says is true to them.” Field, meanwhile, has been particular, for example, about the minutiae of puppet eyebrow placement.

“I think it’s my job to ask ‘What about this? What about that?’,” reasons Gray. “But all concerns go away when it becomes collaborative, and this has been collaborative from day one. And lots of fun. They know what they’re doing, so Oi Frog Friends! is a lovely balance between what the books have to offer and what a stage performance has to offer.”

Gray and Field were thrilled to see the show in its West End premiere in December 2019, before the UK tour was launched in February 2020 and soon stalled by Covid, but now resumed.

Gray says: “It has taken the Oi characters to places I could never have imagined. The fun, the artistry and the sheer theatrical genius of this production really is something to behold.”

Field concurs: “Seeing the characters brought to life from our series of Oi books was both surreal and incredible. Oi Frog & Friends! bounces along with non-stop energy, amazing puppets, funny songs, shouty rhymes, and a squirty elephant trunk. It’s brilliantly bonkers!”

Field rejoins: “I think children experiencing as much culture as they can is a great thing. Reading is absolutely essential; parents should be reading to their children every night. And I remember what it was like seeing brilliant Christmas pantos.”

Gray concludes: “I think it’s important for children to do things that take their minds in different directions. There’s something wonderful about going to the theatre; it kind of hugs you. You get in, and you don’t want to leave.”

Oi Frog & Friends, York Theatre Royal, today at 1.30pm and 4.30pm; tomorrow, 10.30am and 1.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

By Matthew Amer and Charles Hutchinson