Born to pun: Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
PANTOMIMES, theatrical family adventures and a Wonderland experience are still delighting in 2024 as Charles Hutchinson also looks ahead to 2025.
Still time for pantomime: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, until January 5 2025
LOOK out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill at the double, dashing between the Spirit of the Ring and the Genie of the Lamp in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy.
Paul Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Ivan Tobebooed to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
In the frame: Phil Atkinson’s bodacious baddie, Hugo Pompidou, in UK Productions’ Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Still time for pantomime part two: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, until January 5 2025
THE jokes are as cheesy as the French setting of the village of Camembert, brassier and fruitier too in Jon Monie’s script, as George Ure directs the Grand Opera House pantomime for the first time.
Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer is a magically bouncy Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell delights as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris is a stentorian-voiced Beast/Prince; comedian Phil Reid’s Louis La Plonk and Leon Craig’s towering dame, Polly La Plonk lead the comic japes with gusto and Phil Atkinson sends up his French-accented dastardly hunk, Hugo Pompidou, to the max. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Bea Clancy’s Harrietty Clock and Marc Akinfolarin’s Pod Clock in The Borrowers at Hull Truck Theatre
“Perfect alternative to pantomime”: The Borrowers, Hull Truck Theatre, until January 4 2025
SET against a backdrop of Christmas in the East Riding of Yorkshire during the 1940s’ Blitz, artistic director Mark Babych’s enchanting production explores themes of adventure, friendship and the joy of love and togetherness in the tale of adventurous, spritely Borrower Arrietty Clock, who lives secretly under the floorboards of a country house.
Her small but perfectly formed family borrows from the humans above, but Arrietty longs for freedom and fresh air. However, the Borrowers have one simple rule: to remain hidden from the “human-beans”, especially bad-tempered housekeeper Mrs Driver and rebellious gardener Crampfurl. When an evacuee, a human boy from neighbouring Hull, arrives in the main house, Arrietty becomes curious… and starts making mistakes. Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.
Checks and stripes: Alice’s Christmas Wonderland at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Madder than the Mad Hatter if you don’t see: Alice’s Christmas Wonderland, Castle Howard, near Malton, until January 5 2025
FALL down the rabbit hall into “an experience like no other”: Lewis Carroll’s Alice in her Christmas Wonderland at Castle Howard, where the CLW Event Design creative team, headed by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie, has worked on the spectacular project since January.
The stately home has been transformed into an immersive Christmas experience, dressed in set pieces, decorations and floristry, coupled with projections, lighting and sound by Leeds theatre company imitating the dog. Box office: castlehoward.co.uk.
Casting a shadow: James Willstrop’s villainous bruiser, Bill Sikes, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Dickens of a good show: Pick Me Up Theatre in Oliver Twist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm on December 28 and 30, plus 2.30pm, December 28 and 29
HELEN Spencer takes the director’s reins and plays Fagin in York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s staging of Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel, described as a “a new version of Oliver with a festive twist”.
Not to be confused with Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!, it does feature John Biddle’s musical arrangements to complement Dickens’s fable of Oliver Twist being born in a workhouse, sold into an apprenticeship and recruited by Fagin’s band of pickpockets and thieves as he sinks into London’s grimy underworld on his search for a home, a family and love. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Party invitation: The poster for Irie Vibes Sound System’s New Year’s Eve Party at The Crescent, York
New Year’s Eve Party: Irie Vibes Sound System, The Crescent, York, December 31, 8pm to 2am
IRIE Vibes Sound System bring the full rig and crew for a joyous night of reggae, roots, dancehall, dub and jungle to the closing hours of 2024 and beyond midnight. MC Sherlock Art will be on hosting duties, bringing the fire, while Lines Of Duty will be delivering their brand of dance music in Room 2, “manipulating long- playing micro-grooves for a full frequency audio experience”. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Music talk to note: The Arts Society, Helmsley presents Christmas In Bach’s Leipzig: The Christmas Oratorio of 1734/5, Helmsley Arts Centre, January 6 2025, 7.30pm
IN his illustrated talk, commentator, broadcaster, performer and lecturer Sandy Burnett explores how Johann Sebastian Bach brings the Christmas story alive in his Weihnachtsoratorium or Christmas Oratorio, written for Lutheran congregations in 1730s Leipzig.
An overview of Bach’s life and achievement precedes a close look at this magnificent work, where the German composer draws on various forms, ranging from recitative, arioso, aria, chorale and instrumental sinfonia through to full-blown choruses infused with the joyous spirit of the dance. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Malton & Norton Musical Theatre’s poster for January’s production of Jack And The Beanstalk
First big show of the New Year at Milton Rooms, Malton: Malton & Norton Musical Theatre in Jack & The Beanstalk, January 18 to 25. Performances: January 18, 1pm and 5.15pm; January 19, 2pm; January 21 to 24, 7.15pm; January 25, 1pm and 5.15pm
MALTON & Norton Musical Theatre pantomime stars promise a family-friendly giant adventure packed with laughs, toe-tapping songs and plenty of audience participation.
Jack, his brave mother and their quirky friends will face off against the towering giant in a magical world full of comedy and surprises in an enchanting tale of bravery and beanstalks. Box office: 07833 759263 or yourboxoffice.co.uk.
Paul Hawkyard’s villain Ivan Tobebooed and Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in York Theatre Royal’s Aladdin. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
OUT with the old, in with the new, as the pantomimes season concludes and Charles Hutchinson’s 2025 diary starts to take shape.
Still time for pantomime: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, until January 5 2025
LOOK out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill at the double, dashing between the Spirit of the Ring and the Genie of the Lamp in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy.
Paul Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Ivan Tobebooed to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Samuel Wyn-Morris’s Beast and Jennifer Caldwell’s Belle in Beauty And The Beast at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Still time for pantomime part two: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, until January 5 2025
THE jokes are as cheesy as the French setting of the village of Camembert, brassier and fruitier too, in Jon Monie’s script, as George Ure directs the Grand Opera House pantomime for the first time.
Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer is a magically bouncy Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell delights as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris is a stentorian-voiced Beast/Prince; comedian Phil Reid’s Louis La Plonk and Leon Craig’s towering dame, Polly La Plonk lead the comic japes with gusto and Phil Atkinson sends up his French-accented dastardly hunk, Hugo Pompidou, to the max. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Marc Akinfolarin’s Pod Clock in The Borrowers at Hull Truck Theatre
“Perfect alternative to pantomime”: The Borrowers, Hull Truck Theatre, until January 4 2025
SET against a backdrop of Christmas in the East Riding of Yorkshire during the 1940s’ Blitz, artistic director Mark Babych’s enchanting production explores themes of adventure, friendship and the joy of love and togetherness in the tale of adventurous, spritely Borrower Arrietty Clock, who lives secretly under the floorboards of a country house.
Her small but perfectly formed family borrows from the humans above, but Arrietty longs for freedom and fresh air. However, the Borrowers have one simple rule: to remain hidden from the “human-beans”, especially bad-tempered housekeeper Mrs Driver and rebellious gardener Crampfurl. When an evacuee, a human boy from neighbouring Hull, arrives in the main house, Arrietty becomes curious… and starts making mistakes. Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.
The poster for Irie Vibes Sound System’s New Year’s Eve Party at The Crescent, York
New Year’s Eve Party: Irie Vibes Sound System, The Crescent, York, December 31, 8pm to 2am
IRIE Vibes Sound System bring the full rig and crew for a joyous night of reggae, roots, dancehall, dub and jungle to the closing hours of 2024 and beyond midnight. MC Sherlock Art will be on hosting duties, bringing the fire, while Lines Of Duty will be delivering their brand of dance music in Room 2, “manipulating long- playing micro-grooves for a full frequency audio experience”. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Professor Kettlestring: Launching a new attraction in York next month
First grand opening of the New Year: The Puzzling World Of Professor Kettlestring, Merchantgate, York, from January 10 2025
WELCOME to Matthew and Marianne Tritton-Hughes’s new attraction, The Puzzling World Of Professor Kettlestring, an immersive, educational world of more than 20 optical illusions, interactive exhibits and brain-bending challenges designed for curious minds of all ages.
Visitors can walk into the Professor’s sideways living room, disappear into his incognito chamber and discover a kitchen parlour where heads appear severed on platters. Box office: puzzlingworldyork.co.uk.
Jessica Steel: Performing at The Crescent in aid of Millie Wright’s Children’s Charity
Fundraiser of the month ahead: Lindow Man and Jessica Steel & Stuart Allan, The Crescent, York, January 11 2025, 7.30pm
ELECTRIFYING York soul, blues and rock’n’roll trio Lindow Man and York blues and soul singer Jessica Steel and guitarist Stuart Allan will play in aid of Millie Wright’s Children’s Charity.
Based at Leeds General Infirmary, the charity is committed to addressing inequalities in hands-on charitable support for families looking after children with life-threatening conditions by working towards providing practical and emotional help to parents and carers via Family Support Workers. Pizzas from Curious Pizza Company will be available on the night. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Chris McCausland: Playing the Grand Opera House in 2025 and 2026
Comedy gig announcement of the week: Chris McCausland, Yonks!, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 2025 and May 17 2026
AFTER lifting the glitterball trophy as the ground-breaking first blind contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, Liverpool comedian Chris McCausland will return to his “day job” on his Yonks! tour, now to be extended into 2026.
Appearing on Sky Max over Christmas with fellow comic Lee Mack as sparring neighbours who must take on a gang of thieves in the festive film Bad Tidings, McCausland has added a second York date after selling out the first. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Public Service Broadcasting: Heading to York Barbican in March
Belated York debut announced: Public Service Broadcasting, York Barbican, March 27 2025, doors 7pm
AFTER 15 years of “teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future”, London archivist art rock pioneers Public Service Broadcasting will make their York Barbican debut next spring with a line-up of corduroy-clad J Willgoose Esq., drummer companion Wrigglesworth, flugelhorn player J F Abraham and Mr B, specialist in visuals and set design for live performances.
Last October’s fifth studio album, The Last Flight, was built around the ill-fated final flight of American aviator Amelia Earhart on July 2 1937, when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
George Ure: Director of Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York
GEORGE Ure has returned to a York rehearsal room for the first time since 2012 to direct the Grand Opera House pantomime Beauty And The Beast.
“I was last here to play Tom, one of the pilots in The Guinea Pig Club, the play by Susan Watkins, the wife of neurosurgeon Professor Sid Watkins, about the Second World War pilots who became the “guinea pig club” for pioneering plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe,” says the Scotsman, recalling artistic director Damian Cruden’s premiere at York Theatre Royal in October that year.
The Guinea Pig Club, by the way, was set up as an exclusive club for Battle of Britain pilots with extensive burns injuries who had been operated on by Sir Archibald. “We all stayed in touch with the Guinea Pig Club and got invited to their Christmas party,” recalls George.
“Fiona [Fiona Dolman, who played Sister O’Donnell] stayed the best of friends with one or two of the families.”
Born In Airdrie, 13 miles from Glasgow, George moved south in 2005 to study at Mountview [Academy of Theatre Arts]. “I’ve been based in London for nearly 20 years now, but York is my favourite place in the UK outside of Scotland, it really is,” he says of a city that has drawn him here for the joy of a “romantic weekend with my other half”.
“I love this city; it is a bit of me now, so when UK Productions asked me to do this pantomime, they didn’t have to ask me twice. I was contacted in the summertime by Anthony Williams, the executive pantomime director, who manages all 11 of their pantomimes.
Phil Atkinson’s villainous Hugo Pompidou performing his mash-up of Work Of Art and Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? in Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
“We were reconnecting after not seeing each other for many years. He asked me what I was up to and I said I was looking for a show to direct. We discussed my ideas and I’ve been on the project since August.”
George brings directorial experience aplenty to staging Beauty And The Beast. “I’ve been working in drama schools for a long time: I’ve just finished a ten-year run at Urdang Academy, and I’m now working with one of my graduates, Hattie Dibb, who’s in the ensemble here after playing my leading lady in her leaving musical, Anne Pornick in Kipps.”
George has performed in panto on several occasions. “I played Peter Pan twice, once at Milton Keynes Theatre, then at New Wimbledon Theatre in 2015 [with Marcus Brigstocks as Captain Hook and Verne Troyer as Lofty the Pirate], and then I did Jack And The Beanstalk, back in Scotland at Perth Theatre, where I was Angus.” Angus, who is he? “Jack’s brother, the ‘dafty’. It was a brilliant show!”
George was raised on Scottish pantomimes. “I used to go to the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, where Gerard Kelly played the ‘Silly Billy’ role for 20 years. Stanley Baxter was a legend there too, and Elaine C Smith is still doing the show there after so many years [playing Mrs Smee in Peter Pan this winter],” he says.
“My aunt’s brother, Edward O’Toole, was the stage manager there for more than 20 years and he used to get us in to watch the preview, and my dad did a bit of shift work there at Christmas.”
George loves panto. “It’s such a cliché to say it’s a child’s first experience of theatre, but it’s true, and panto doesn’t have to be naff! I believe that if you can find the balance of humour and heart, it has the power to speak to everyone. At some point in the show it will touch everyone – and it has to have really good storytelling too.”
Directing a commercial pantomime is a flat-out experience, ‘hothousing’ a show in less than a fortnight. “I started on the Monday and ran the full show by Saturday morning; the next Monday was the tech day with a producer’s run, followed by notes, and then we flew over to the theatre to work towards opening on Saturday that week [December 7],” says George.
Jennifer Caldwell’s Belle and Samuel Wyn-Morris’s Beast in a pas de deux in Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
“I’m a meticulous planner. Working in a drama school, you get used to tight schedules, so I had to plan ahead with a wish list for every department, and I’m happy to say that we were ahead of the game after the first week of rehearsals.”
George first met up with choreographer Alex Codd and musical director Arlene McNaught in September. “We talked through everyone’s music choices. I’m a collaborator; I don’t think there should be a dictator; I’m a team person as you can only succeed like that – though fundamentally I did have some strong feelings on what the music should be as I didn’t want it to be just chart hits.
“Beauty And The Beast is all about the plot, and the music should match that, and not just become an excuse to change lyrics of a pop hit to make it work.
“We’ve gone for pop music from many decades, from Carole King to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off in a mash-up with Chappell Roan’s Hot To Go!; Lovin’ Spoonful’s Do You Believe In Magic for Fairy Bon Bon to Meat Loaf’s I’d Do Anything For Love (But I won’t Do That), plus songs from Wicked and Les Miserables.
“We also have Work Of Art from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie mashed up with Rod Stewart’s Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? for the baddie, Phil Atkinson’s Hugo Pompidou, who’s really like an anti-baddie because he’s so funny.
“The music was really important to me because it has to serve the plot and you have to have the balance right, and thankfully the producers were very welcoming of all my nonsense!”
Beauty And The Beast runs at Grand Opera House, York, until January 5 2025. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Evie Pickerill’s Spirit of the Ring in York Theatre Royal’s Aladdin. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
CBBC host Evie Pickerill is not only dashing around in two roles in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal this festive season, she also is popping up in the CBeebies pantomime, Beauty And The Beast.
“I’m playing the Robin,” she says. Not the first role that springs to mind in that story. “She’s Belle’s best friend, who’s a bird, so I got to fly! I’ve never flown across a stage before, so I was quite nervous about it but I loved it – and the costume was incredible! Now I’d love to do it again, maybe playing Tinkerbell.”
Evie headed up to Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre to record the televised pantomime before starting rehearsals for Aladdin. “We performed it live for two days at this huge, wonderful theatre. It’s been running in cinemas and you can see it on iPlayer in December as well as on CBeebies.”
The Theatre Royal rehearsals reunited Evie with choreographer Hayley Del Harrison, who had choreographed the CBeebies pantomime too. “She worked on my arm movements for the Robin, and it’s been lovely to work with her again in York, and with Juliet [director Juliet Forster] too, after she directed me in CBeebies’ Romeo And Juliet in 2021, when I played Juliet,” she says.
“Working for Evolution Productions at York Theatre Royal is big-boy panto; they’re the king of panto,” says Evie Pickerill
A principal presenter on the children’s television channel since 2018, she is the fourth CBeebies participant in the Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions co-production, following in the steps of Andy Day, Mandy Moate and James “Raven” McKenzie.
“That’s big shoes to fill,” she says. “Playing the Spirit of the Ring and the Genie of the Lamp is my first time on the York stage but I’ve been to York a handful of times and love it here.”
Her previous pantomimes were in her native Midlands. “I played Cinderella at The Grand, Wolverhampton, and Leicester de Montford Hall and Snow White at Wolverhampton, where everything was made locally for the show and we had an eight-piece orchestra and an ice rink with skating, though my Snow White escaped having to skate,” recalls Evie.
“To play the title role in my home town was a pinch-me moment. I’ve been watching shows there since I was young, so I’ve come full circle. I only wish my grandparents could have been there as they used to take me to shows, but my old teachers did come.”
Lift-off: Evie Pickerill’s Genie of the Lamp with the ensemble in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
Aladdin has presented differences aplenty from her past shows, not least “the luxury” of much longer rehearsals. “After doing panto for Imagine at Leicester and in-house at Wolverhampton, working for Evolution at York Theatre Royal is big-boy panto; they’re the king of panto. We’ve done a lot of character work, which is different from the other pantos I’ve done,” says Evie.
“I’m playing a different kind of role too: with the Spirit of the Ring, there’s a bit comedy, a bit of silliness. It’s also been nice to have the ‘safety blanket’ of Juliet and Hayley being there, but everyone has been so inviting.
“Robin [dame Robin Simpson] is so funny and Paul [villain Paul Hawkyard] is a delight to work with. I do lots of scenes with him.”
Evie Pickerill’s Genie of the Lamp with Sario Solomon’s Aladdin in a scene from Aladdin. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
In addition to the CBeebies pantomime, Evie has filmed Dodge’s Christmas Wish at Thursford, the home of the Christmas Spectacular in Norfolk. “It’ll be on CBeebies and iPlayer,” says Evie. “I play myself in this one. The synopsis is that Dodge, the dog in the CBeebies’ house, would like to give Father Christmas a present because no-one ever does that.
“So, we head off to the North Pole, but I won’t reveal who’ll be playing Father Christmas as it’s so exciting!”
Settled into York for the festive season, Evie feels very much at home in 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 runs at York Theatre Royal until January 5 2025. No performances on December 19, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
It’s a Cracker:Holly Cassidy with the puppet dog in A Christmas Cracker. Picture: Tom Jackson
WRITER and artistic director Paul Birch is staging his first play since taking the reins of Riding Lights Theatre Company at Friargate Theatre, York, in July.
On tour from November 25 to December 18, A Christmas Cracker will conclude its travels with a home run in York from December 21 to 24.
Introducing a magical show packed with comedy, puppetry and seasonal storytelling for all the family, Paul says: “Things are not going well for world-famous storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer. She’s lost. There is snow in her wellies and her wise and faithful dog, Cracker, has some strange ideas about Christmas.
“Caught taking shelter in Mrs McGinty’s barn, she allows them to stay on condition that Ebenezer warm up her Christmas with some of her seasonal stories. If they bring her enough glad tidings, there’s a hot supper on the cards. If not, they will be thrown back out into the storm.
“With Mrs McGinty’s frozen heart in need of a magnificent miracle and Deadly the dastardly donkey ready to kick comfort and joy out of his stable, will Ebenezer triumph? Despite turbulent turkeys and hysterical hay fights, she has a plan and some tremendous tales to turn things around.”
Full of Birch’s trademark humour, “it’s kind of an alternative, unusual way into the Nativity story,” he says. “I would say it’s like a cross between Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run in its tone, and hopefully it pulls off that Pixar trick, where the whole family can sit down and enjoy it together.
Riding Lights artistic director Paul Birch, right, with executive director Oliver Brown outside Friargate Theatre
“It’s a play about communicating the importance of love, the importance of perseverance and the wonder and power of storytelling.
“So it’s a re-working of the Christmas story that also recognises that the act of storytelling itself has such a powerful effect on people. Part of the play shows how stories can be harmful too, where we have the ‘villains of the piece’ not actually being villains but playing out roles when they’ve been treated as villains, but then they discover that’s not the true story at all.”
Paul continues: “Stories are not just something we tell to each other but they also shape us. It’s about re-discovering the stories we tell and how we tell them to each other.
“It’s very difficult to live with the cynicism of our age. One of the things I think about the Creation story, whether you think the story is true or not, is that people can be transformed for the better and there is hope in that.
“Christian stories or stories of other faiths have hope embedded in them, and we have to come back to the hope that we can be better, we can make things better. What links His Last Report [next summer’s community play about the life and legacy of Seebohm Rowntree that Riding Lights will be doing with York Theatre Royal] and A Christmas Cracker is the common theme of the power of human beings to change things for the better.
“Maybe that is the case with all theatre: that thing of what happens as a result of that change into a new story. It’s not that stories simply go, ‘here is the message’, but that it is a point of connection between audience members and connection between theatre-makers and their audience.
Grace Hussey-Burd and Holly Cassidy in a scene in Riding Lights Theatre Company’s winter show A Christmas Cracker. Picture: Tom Jackson
“We’re trying to make sense of the world, not providing answers, but seeing new opportunities through new ideas.”
Paul points to the ever-changing shape of theatre being one of its prime strengths. “The difference between film or other recorded media and theatre is that they cannot be changed, but theatre can do that with each performance. It will change and shift, and not only the performers, but the audience too – and when theatre is good, it’s a dialogue between the two. That’s not to say it might not have clear provocations within it, but it always needs to be responsive.”
Paul first wrote A Christmas Cracker more than a decade ago. “I did re-write it for this production and even now I would re-work it again. We are always re-tuning. Watching with a young audience is always really interesting because they will tell you when it’s working and when it’s not.”
Paul’s hour-long play is directed by Erin Burbridge, retaining the Burbridge family involvement in Christian theatre company Riding Lights after the death of company founder Paul in May 2023. Her cast features Grace Hussey-Burd as Ebeneezer Sneezer and Holly Cassidy as Cracker and Mrs McGinty, with York actress Claire Morley on understudy duty.
Time to get cracking to secure tickets.
Riding Lights Theatre Company in A Christmas Cracker, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, December 21 to 24. Performances: 11am, 1.30pm and 6pm, December 21 to 23; 11am, 1.30pm and 4pm, December 24. Box office: 01904 655317or ridinglights.org/achristmascracker.
Magical performance: Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bonin Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
SUDDENLY there are more similarities between the Grand Opera House and York Theatre Royal shows than at any time in more than three decades of reviewing York’s professional pantomimes. They even share their closing date.
Dowager dame Berwick Kaler is performing at neither theatre after hanging up his boots (except on The Archers!); both theatres have a sustained relationship with a commercial partner, Martin Dodd and UK Productions for a third year at the GOH, writer-producer Paul Hendy and Evolution Productions for a fifth season at the Theatre Royal.
Both writers, Jon Monie for Beauty And The Beast and Hendy for Aladdin, are Great British Pantomime Award winners. Both theatres have confirmed their return next year for the already announced Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
In the frame: Phil Atkinson’s Hugo Pompidou giving it large in Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Once upon a time, the Grand Opera House was considered to be the pantomime for younger audiences, the Theatre Royal playing to devotees of Dame Berwick’s unique panto brio and banter with David Leonard, Martin Barrass and Suzy Cooper. Now, both shows put children’s entertainment to the fore.
Just as Evolution heralded a new broom at the Theatre Royal in 2020-2021, now UK Productions are bringing a new face to the Grand Opera House show, or more to the point, new faces, faces with abundant West End and TV credits. They have bonded in the hothouse of less than a fortnight’s rehearsals with ebullient, ultra-efficient Scottish director George Ure in central York.
The result is a slick show full of rousing singing, highly proficient ensemble scenes, a relish for the power of storytelling and bags of comedy set-pieces. Watching the 10.30am Thursday matinee surrounded by primary schoolchildren found double entendres sailing over young heads like a Joe Root reverse ramp, but this is surely the sauciest mainstream pantomime York has ever seen.
Shall we dance? Jennifer Caldwell’s Belle and Samuel Wyn-Morris’s Beast in Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Not a blue panto in the post-watershed Jim Davidson style, I stress, but certainly closer to the knuckle, tongue pushed further into cheeks than even Dame Berwick’s fruitier latter-day shows in his Theatre Royal pomp.
The prime source of the sauce is Leon Craig, a towering presence of a highly experienced dame, all 6ft 7 of her Polly La Plonk in boots and high-rise wigs, who owns the York stage from the off, full of lip and lip gloss, camp cheek and dress dazzle.
Craig is a musical theatre specialist and his singing duly hits the heights here. Playing the Beast’s cook, his dame is both supportive and disruptive, as the role dictates, and his bond with the show’s clown, comedian Phil Reid as his son Louis La Plonk, sparks slapstick aplenty.
Clowning around: Phil Reid’s Louis La Plonk. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Reid, quick on his feet and in the head, works a treat with the children, all keen to be in his gang, not least the three picked out to join him stage for Choo Choo Wa, this show’s variation on the traditional song-sheet number that has everyone off their feet joining in.
The star on the show poster – as she is quick to remind us in her rap battle with Phil Atkinson’s villainous hunk Hugo Pompidou – is Tracy Beaker’s Dani Harmer, who previously appeared in Beauty And The Beast at York Barbican in 2015. She was Beauty in that Easter panto; now she is a no-nonsense Fairy Bon Bon, with a love-a-duck London accent and platform shoes, always game for a laugh, especially in that rap scrap.
Atkinson’s Hugo Pompidou, Craig’s match in double entendres, sends up his vainglorious villain with an ‘Allo ‘Allo! French accent and a keenness to show off his pecs at every opportunity.
Ooh…you are Eiffel: The towering Leon Craig’s dame, Polly La Plonk. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Jennifer Caldwell first caught the eye at the Grand Opera House as Anne Boleyn, the peachiest role in Six The Musical. Her rather more conservative but equally resolute Belle is both a knock-out singer and thoroughly lovely foil to all the silliness around her, both in her scenes with her impoverished artist father Clement (David Alcock) and especially with Samuel Wyn-Morris’s stentorian-voiced Beast.
Wyn-Morris gives the show’s five-star performance, his singing rich and thunderous, his characterisation full of depth not usually to be found in pantomime. His scenes with Caldwell’s Belle are worthy of a proper, grown-up, serious romantic drama.
Ure’s assured direction is complemented by Alex Codd’s choreography, with room aplenty for an ensemble of Villagers and children’s teams from Dance Expression School of Dance and Lisa Marie Performing Arts, who are sharing performances. Musical director Arlene McNaught leads her three-piece orchestra with snap and crackle in the pop tunes.
Beauty And The Beast director George Ure
This is a polished pantomime whose one failing is that it could be playing anywhere in the country. It does not have enough acknowledgement of York and Yorkshire, with only perfunctory mentions of Wetwang and Ripon and a dig at Leeds United’s FA Cup incompetence.
The best pantos dip into a city’s culture, but if that is a missed opportunity, the show does make the most of its Camembert setting, oozing in cheesy gags, French references and unforgettable Tricolour pants for Atkinson’s pompous Pompidou.
UK Productions present Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, until January 5 2025. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
David Alcock’s Clement and Jennifer Caldwell’s Belle in Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Invitation to the ball: Grand Opera House announces Cinderella for next winter
TICKETS will go on sale at noon on Friday for next year’s Grand Opera House pantomime in York. The Cumberland Street theatre will present Cinderella from December 6 2025 to January 4 2026 in its fourth collaboration with UK Productions.
As with this winter’s panto, Beauty And The Beast, the show will feature a script by Jon Monie, winner of Best Script at the 2019 Great British Pantomime Awards.
Promising side-splitting comedy, lavish settings and adorable miniature ponies, Cinderella will be “more fun than you can shake a pumpkin at”. Star casting is to be announced but “expect stars from the West End and screen”.
Laura McMillan, the Grand Opera House theatre director, says: “As we open the spectacular Beauty And The Beast, we’re delighted that UK Productions will be returning next year with the most beloved of pantomimes of all time, Cinderella. I’m sure adults and children alike will be spellbound by this magical new show.”
UK Productions producer Martin Dodd says: “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without pantomime, and pantomime wouldn’t be pantomime without Cinderella. We are delighted to be presenting this fabulous story at York’s beautiful Grand Opera House, building on the success of this year’s musical pantomime, Beauty And The Beast.”
To take advantage of early bird ticket savings, book by Saturday, February 1 2025 to save £8 per ticket on select performances and seats.
Beauty And The Beast will run until January 5 2025 with a West End cast featuring CBBC’s BAFTA award-winning Dani Harmer, from Tracy Beaker and Strictly ComeDancing, as Fairy Bon Bon; dameLeon Craig, fromEverybody’s Talking About Jamie, as Polly La Plonk,Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle, andSamuel Wyn-Morris, fromLes Misérables, as The Prince. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York Theatre Royal’s promotional poster for dame Robin Simpson’s return in Sleeping Beauty in 2025
ROBIN Simpson will return for his sixth season as the dame in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime for 2025-26, Sleeping Beauty, billed as “an enchanting tale of adventure, fun and spellbinding magic for the whole family”.
Co-produced with regular partners Evolution Productions, the show will run from December 2 2025 to January 4 2026, with “stunning costumes, gorgeous sets, dazzling special effects and all the spectacular magic of a York Theatre Royal pantomime”.
The show will be written by Evolution producer Paul Hendy and directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, the team behind Aladdin this winter, Jack And The Beanstalk in 2023, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan in 2022, Cinderella in 2021 and the community-touring Travelling Pantomime in Covid-shadowed 2020.
Forster says: “We’ve been delighted to see so many people returning year after year to enjoy the magic of a York Theatre Royal pantomime. We are so proud of the quality of the pantos we make and can’t wait to continue our panto adventures with Sleeping Beauty. It’s so brilliant to have Robin on board again too to bring the hilarity and fun as our dame!”
Hendy says: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with the fabulous team at York Theatre Royal again for our spectacular production of Sleeping Beauty. We are delighted Robin will be returning as our wonderful dame, and we can’t wait to share with you more exciting casting news in the New Year!”
Simpson enthuses: “I am overjoyed to be playing the dame in next year’s Sleeping Beauty. I love the York audiences and it’s such a special place to perform every year at Christmas time. I’m looking forward to all the high jinks the dame will get up to in Sleeping Beauty!”
Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Early birds who book before the end of March 2025 can benefit from a price freeze on ticket prices, with options ranging from £15 to £43.50.
Family ticket discounts can be booked for £90 (for three including at least one child) and £120 (for four including at least one child.) Schools discounts are available when booking via the St Leonard’s Place box office.
YTR Members receive an extra ten per cent off up to four tickets. For details of how to join YTR Membership, visit yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or contact the box office.
Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly with the magnet of love in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
THIS is York Theatre Royal’s fifth collaboration with regular pantomime award winners Evolution Productions. On Tuesday, a sixth was confirmed for next year when Sleeping Beauty will stir from December 2 2025 to January 4 2026 with Robin Simpson once more as the dotty dame and tickets on sale already.
The partnership is well grooved with tropes established in the writing of Evolution’s Paul Hendy and the casting and direction of Juliet Forster. Not only Simpson’s gregarious, teasing dame but also the presence of a CBeebies star each year; animals, whether live with Zeus the scene-stealing Border Collie last year or in rather more heavy-footed Welly the Elephant puppet form this time; plenty of set-piece spectacle and the obligatory ghost scene (here with the dame’s ghost gag bench).
A profusion of songs across the pop ages shares equal space with a love of putting the pun into punchlines and a preference for verbal wit over physical slapstick, although the latter still has its place.
There is, too, an awareness of changing times and sensitivities, so while we still have a Spirit of the Ring and Genie of the Lamp (both played by CBeebies’ ever-playful Evie Pickerill, chasing her tail breathlessly and singing heartily), now Widow Twankey’s Chinese laundry has made way for Dame Dolly’s Pun shop.
The decision to change ‘Abanazar’ to ‘Ivan Tobebooed’ may be rather more to do with Hendy’s love of a daft name than any PC correctness. Paul Hawkyard, returning to exuberant York villainy after a winter away doing panto in Dubai, had predicted as much at September’s press launch.
Hawkyard has such comic mischief about his burly, volcanic-voiced frame, whether playing Bottom in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mardy to Simpson’s Manky in their Ugly Sister double act in Cinderella, or now Ivan, you find yourself wanting to cheer as much as boo him.
Your reviewer would have liked to have seen more scenes with Simpson’s Dame Dolly in comic combat with and Hawkyard’s Ivan, given their rare stage chemistry, affirmed once more by their will-they-won’t-they-kiss shenanigans, but maybe the plot did not permit more of such golden moments.
The comedy is shared out between Pickerill’s double act, Simpson’s sassy, sometimes saucy Dame Dolly, Tommy Carmichael’s daft son Charlie and physical comedy specialist Rowan Armitt-Brewster’s PC World on his return to York after his dextrous turn as Inspector Fox in Around The World In 80 Days-ish this summer.
Armitt-Brewster’s officious officer rather out-stars the affable Carmichael, with better lines, better gags, funnier body movements too, but the children warm to Carmichael’s cheekiness and he plays his part alongside Armitt-Brewster and Simpson in the show’s best call-and-respond set-piece, as fractious as a rap battle when conducted with presses of a button to release a recorded line from a familiar pop hit to express their feelings.
The dame’s audience pick for humiliation, one Adam from the front row, plays his part in a headset in this scene and has an even bigger moment on stage earlier on when delivering a series of deliberately clunky punchlines in a joke shop routine with ‘Terry-Bull’ timing.
Fresh from playing Sonny in the UK tour of Grease, Sario Solomon is a delightfully ever-positive Aladdin, as uplifting as his carpet ride and singing like a dream too, and he is matched by Emily Tang’s Princess Jasmine, thoroughly modern in outlook in being drawn to the personality, not the bank balance.
Clear storytelling and good values (rather than heavy-handed moral messaging) are always strong features of creative director Juliet Forster’s direction, alongside the abundant humour, complemented by Hayley Del Harrison’s sparky, sparkling choreography.
Morgan Brind’s costumes stand out more than his set designs, especially the dame’s merry-go-round of ever-dafter attire. Look out too for one shop sign: Sherlock Combs, Barber, a cut above the norm.
Hendy’s script finds room for cutting observations on York’s parking and potholes and takes pot-shots at Hull and the Grand Opera House pantomime too, and never has he had more fun with a pun in a show where the second half surpasses the first, as should always be the case. All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Jack And The Beanstalk were superior but there is still plenty to enjoy in Aladdin.
Aladdin runs at York Theatre Royal until January 5 2025. Box office:01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Quinn Richards in Be Amazing Arts’ promenade production of A Christmas Carol in Malton
’TIS the season for pantomime, festive exhibitions, ghost stories, a snow bear and an elf as Charles Hutchinson welcomes winter.
Promenade festive experience of the week: Be Amazing Arts in A Christmas Carol, Malton’s streets and buildings, starting at Kemps Books, until December 23
MALTON theatre-makers Be Amazing Arts return for a fourth season of immersive A Christmas Carol performances “truly made for all the senses”, where Charles Dickens invites you to a reading of his latest work, transforming into Ebenezer Scrooge (Quinn Richards) for a promenade production, written by Roxanna Klimaszewska, with a cast featuring Katy Rattigan, Kirsty Woolf and David Lomond.
The ticket price includes a food platter from The Cook’s Place as revellers celebrate with the ghost of Christmas Present and a warm winter drink to toast to the goodwill of Christmas. Ticket advice: book promptly as past years’ shows sold out. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/beamazingarts/1275175.
Isobel Staton’s Mary in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders
Christmas message of hope of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, tomorrow and Friday, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
PAUL Toy’s community production recalls when the Mystery Plays were banned in the 17th century for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.
“Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter, with their new-born child being forced to flee to another country, but there is news of great hope and joy,” says Toy. Box office: 0333 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on the door.
Wicked return: Paul Hawkyard takes to the dark side again as Abanazar in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal
Look who’s back: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, until January 5 2025
PAUL Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Abanazar to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note) in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy. Look out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon in Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Changing of the old guard to the new: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, Saturday to January 5 2025
EXIT the Dame Berwick Kaler, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and AJ Powell era. Enter Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer as Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris, from Les Miserable, as The Prince; comedian Phil Reid as Louis La Plonk; dame Leon Craig, from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, as his larger-than-life mum, Polly La Plonk; Phil Atkinson, from The Bodyguard, as dastardly Hugo Pompidou and David Alcock, from SAS Rogue Heroes, as Clement. George Ure directs 2019 Great British Pantomimes Award winner Jon Monie’s script. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The principal players in Rowntree Players’ pantomime Mother Goose at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Let the egg puns get cracking: Rowntree Players in Mother Goose, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Saturday, 2pm and 7.30pm, Sunday, 2pm and 6pm; December 10 to 13, 7.30pm; December 14, 2pm and 7.30pm
MEET Jack (Gemma McDonald), head of hens at Chucklepatch Farm, with its newest addition to the coop, Priscilla the goose (Abbey Follansbee). Joined by mum Gertrude Gander (alias Mother Goose, Michael Cornell) and his sister Jill (Laura Castle), they head out on their panto adventure.
Frustrated with life on the farm and desperate for showbiz, Gertrude gives up the Wolds for the bright lights of Doncaster. However, ever-nasty landlord Demon Darkheart (Jamie McKeller, alias Dr Dorian Deathly from the Deathly Dark Tours ghost walk) and his assistant Bob (Laura McKeller) will stop at nothing to collect rent, but dishy farmer Kev, the King of Kale (Sarah Howlett) and Fairy Frittata (Holly Smith) will not let the dark side rule in a rollicking romp directed by co-writer Howard Ella. Tickets update: Down to last few tickets or limited availability for most performances on 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Tom Mordell’s Polaris the Snow Bear and Danny Mellor’s Sammy the Seal in Badapple Theatre Company’s Polaris The Snow Bear. Picture: Karl Andre
Children’s play of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in Polaris The Snow Bear, The Mount School, York, Saturday, 3pm and on tour in Yorkshire and beyond until January 5 2025
MEET Polaris, the travelling snow bear and star of Kate Bramley’s new family Christmas show for Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company. On his journey to find renowned naturalist Mr Hat-In-Burrow, many complicated and comedic adventures ensue as Polaris (Tom Mordell) tries to put everything right, saving the Polar world in time for Christmas with the help of reluctant sidekick Sammy the Seal (Danny Mellor). For Yorkshire dates and tickets, go to: badappletheatre.co.uk or 01423 331304.
Time to deliver: E(s)mereld(a) The Elf And Father Christmas at Milton Rooms, Malton
Festive family show of the week: Epic Adventure Parties present E(s)mereld(a) The Elf And Father Christmas, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 12 noon, 2pm and 3.30pm; Sunday, 10.30am, 12 noon, 2pm and 3.30pm
IN Malton company Epic Adventure Parties’ interactive show, E(s)mereld(a) The Elf And Father Christmas, the friendly Elf must sort out all the Christmas letters in time. She means well but alas she can become very muddled. Can your family help her?
Each show lasts around 20 minutes, to be followed by family visits to Father Christmas and a gift for every child. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/epicadventureparties.
Guy Masterson in his solo performance of A Christmas Carol, on tour at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Solo ghost storyteller of the week: Guy Masterson in A Christmas Carol, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, December 11, 7.30pm
OLIVIER Award winner Guy Masterson, veteran of such solo works such as Under Milk Wood, Animal Farm and Shylock, presents his spellbinding take on Charles Dickens’s festive fable, adapted and directed by Nick Hennegan with original music by Robb Williams.
Noted for bringing multiple characters to life, Masterson conjures Scrooge, Marley, the Fezziwigs, the Cratchits, Tiny Tim et al in his dazzling, enchanting performance. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Isobel Staton’s Mary in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York on dress rehearsal night at The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton. Picture: John Saunders
IT is time for pantomime, festive exhibitions, ghost stories, Elvis blues and a snow bear, as Charles Hutchinson welcomes winter.
Christmas message of hope of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm.
PAUL Toy’s community production recalls when the Mystery Plays were banned in the 17th century for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.
“Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter, with their new-born child being forced to flee to another country, but there is news of great hope and joy.” Box office: 0333 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on the door.
Rob Cotterill as The Mad Hatter in Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s Alice In Wonderland
Through the rabbit hole: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Alice In Wonderland, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm
FOLLOW young Alice on her adventures underground as she navigates her way through an imperfect and unfamiliar world. Discover a place where absurdity is the norm, logic is turned on its head and animals can talk in York company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s flamboyant staging for age five upwards.
Join her as she encounters many weird, wonderful and colourful characters, from the Queen of Hearts to the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter. Answers to riddles are non-existent, tales lack morals and injustice looms large in this Lewis Carroll tale, full of fantasy, imagination and fun, where every time is “tea-time” and nothing is ever really as it seems. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Wicked return: Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar in York Theatre Royal’s Aladdin
Look who’s back: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, December 3 to January 5 2025
PAUL Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Abanazar to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note) in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy. Look out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon in Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Changing of the old guard to the new: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, December 7 to January 5 2025
EXIT the Dame Berwick Kaler, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and AJ Powell era. Enter Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer as Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris, from Les Miserable, as The Prince; comedian Phil Reid as Louis La Plonk; dame Leon Craig, from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, as his larger-than-life mum, Polly La Plonk; Phil Atkinson, from The Bodyguard, as dastardly Hugo Pompidou and David Alcock, from SAS Rogue Heroes, as Clement. George Ure directs 2019 Great British Pantomimes Award winner Jon Monie’s script. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
James Swanton: Christmas ghost stories from the pen of Charles Dickens
Storyteller of the week: James Swanton presents Ghost Stories for Christmas, York Medical Society lecture hall, until December 5, 7pm
YORK actor James Swanton returns to York Medical Society to tell Charles Dickens’s Ghost Stories for Christmas. “Each of them brims with Dickens’s genius for the weird, which ranges from human eccentricities to full-blown phantoms,” he says of his hour-long shows. “Dickens’s anger at social injustice also aligns sharply with our own – and in this age of rising austerity and fascism, we’re feeling the bite more than ever,” he says.
December 5’s performance of The Haunted Man has sold out; hurry, hurry to acquire tickets for A Christmas Carol on December 2, 3 or 4. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
R M Lloyd Parry: MR James Project storyteller
More ghosts in York: Nunkie Theatre Company, Count Magnus, Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
THE ghost stories of M R James amuse and terrify as powerfully today as they did when first written more than a century ago. Nunkie Theatre Company brings two of these spine-chillers to life in R M Lloyd Parry’s thrilling one-man show.
In Count Magnus a travel-writer’s over-inquisitiveness leads to a diabolical chase from darkest Sweden to rural Essex. Denmark is the setting for Number 13, where a hotel room with the famously unlucky number conceals a ghastly, baffling secret. Tickets update: SOLD OUT.
Tom Mordell’s Polaris the Snow Bear and Danny Mellor’s Sammy the Seal in Badapple Theatre Company’s Polaris The Snow Bear. Picture: Karl Andre
Children’s show of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in Polaris The Snow Bear, The Mount School, York, December 7, 3pm, and on tour in Yorkshire and beyond until January 5 2025
MEET Polaris, the travelling snow bear and star of Kate Bramley’s new family Christmas show for Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company. On his journey to find renowned naturalist Mr Hat-In-Burrow, many complicated and comedic adventures ensue as Polaris (Tom Mordell) tries to put everything right, saving the Polar world in time for Christmas with the help of reluctant sidekick Sammy the Seal (Danny Mellor).
Further Yorkshire dates include: tonight, 7pm, Kilham Village Hall; December 1, 7pm, Old Girls’ School, Sherburn in Elmet; December 3, 7pm, Green Hammerton Village Hall; December 11, 7.30pm, Bishop Monkton Village Hall; December 17, 6pm, The Cholmeley Hall, Brandsby; December 28, 2pm, Ampleforth Village Hall, and December 30, 4.30pm, East Cottingwith Village Hall. Full details and tickets: badappletheatre.co.uk or 01423 331304.
Gifts of Christmas on display at the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre
Christmas exhibition of the week: Gifts Of Christmas, Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until December 19, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday; last admission 4pm
BAR Convent is sparkling with a dazzling tree decorations and new exhibition on this year’s festive theme of Gifts of Christmas. On show is a collection of digital art inspired by Viborg, where heritage intersects with cutting-edge technology, while young creatives from Blueberry Academy, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, St George’s RC Primary and York College (ESOL students) are exploring the theme too. Glass cabinets showcase pop-punk tributes to the Book of Kells and the works of William Blake. Tickets: barconvent.co.uk.
1812 Theatre Company’s poster for Pinocchio at Helmsley Arts Centre
1812 pantomime for 2024: 1812 Theatre Company in Pinocchio, Helmsley Arts Centre, 2.30pm matinees, December 7, 8, 14 and 15; 7.30pm evening shows, December 7, 10 to 14
HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs 1812 Theatre Company in Tom Whalley’s version of Pinocchio. Geppetto (Oliver Clive), an old toy maker, always longed for a son of his own. One starry night, helped by the Blue Fairy (Nicky Hollins) and a cheeky little Jiminy Cricket (Millie Neighbour), his wish comes true and his latest puppet, Pinocchio (Esme Schofield), comes to life.
However, the magical puppet catches the eye of evil showman Stromboli (Ben Coughlan). Aided by Dame Mamma Mia (Martin Vander Weyer) and her hapless son Lampwick (Joe Gregory) from the pizzeria, will Pinocchio learn in time what it takes to be a “real boy”? Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
One Knight with you: Steve Knight in his Elvis Christmas Special at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
To avoid a Blue Christmas, book now: Elvis Christmas Special, Tribute by Steve Knight, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 22,7.30pm
STEVE Knight embodies the spirit and energy of Elvis Presley as he brings a Christmas flavour to his tribute act that has played Las Vegas to London. Presented by Wryley Music, he combines spot-on vocals with a dynamic stage presence and an uncanny resemblance to the King of Rock’n’Roll. Backed by a full band, he takes a festive journey through Elvis’s greatest hits. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
In Focus: Jo Walton’s exhibition, Steel, Copper, Rust, Gold, Verdigris, Wax, at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York
Jo Walton setting up her exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb. Behind her is one of her artworks and graffiti artist Sam Porter’s wall painting of an Eastern Bluebird. “The bluebird is beautiful, though some people think it’s a Kingfisher, which is crazy, isn’t it!”
WHEN Rogues Atelier artist, interior designer, upholsterer and Bluebird Bakery curator of exhibitions Jo Walton asked poet Nicky Kippax to put words to images she had sent her, she responded with “The heft of a cliff and a gathering of sea fret”. Spot on, Nicky.
Into the eighth month of recovery from breaking her right leg, Jo is exhibiting predominantly large works that utilise steel, copper, rust, gold, verdigris and wax in Nicky’s bakery, cafe and community centre, in Acomb Road, Acomb, York, whose interior she designed in 2021.
Jo has curated exhibitions in the bakery by Mark Ibson, Rosie Bramley, Liz Foster, Carolyn Coles, Rob Burton and Robin Grover-Jacques, but not shown her own work there until now. Why? “I have my own space [at Rogues Atelier] too, and I’ve also been juggling with the availability of other artists,” she reasons.
Jo’s creative year has been shaped by her leg break. “I was visiting Mark Ibson’s gallery at the old blacksmith’s in Bishop Wilton, when I walked around the back with my daughter and I just fell over. That was at the end of April, just after York Open Studios,” she says.
“I’m only just walking OK now. I’ve still got a slight limp. I had to have a pin put through my ankle, and a plate inserted too, as well splints. Everything in my life came to a complete standstill. All the work and holiday plans stopped, though I did manage to get a couple of paintings done for North Yorkshire Open Studios, going round on my “scooter” to get them completed.”
Earlier in the year, Jo had done an upholstery re-fit upstairs at Ambiente Tapas, in Goodramgate, York, and designed the interior for the new Bluebird Bakery in Butcher Row, Beverley.
For her Acomb exhibition and winter shows at Rogues Atelier, Jo “has been able to work properly at full tilt since September, mainly making smaller pieces”. “But I also had to catch up on so many upholstery orders, delivering what I’d promised but I’d had to put off while I recuperated.
“At Bluebird Bakery, there’ll be big works, all 80cms by 80cms, while all the smaller pieces will be on show at Rogues Atelier, when we do our winter open studios shows along with PICA Studios today [November 30] and tomorrow [10am to 5pm both days], then December 7 [10am to 5pm] and December 8 [11am to 5pm].”
Looking ahead to 2025, Jo will be exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery, in Stonegate, York, in July after being offered a solo show by owner and curator Terry Brett. The exhibition will combine Jo’s big artworks with ceramic vases and vessels and dried metal arrangements to evoke how all the pieces would complement each other in a home setting.
Prompted by putting Nicky Kippax’s poetry on the walls by her artworks in the past, “I’m planning to incorporate her words in the paintings, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” says Jo. “It was the sort of work that first attracted me as an art college student in Harrogate and then at Bradford University.”
As Neil Young once sang, rust never sleeps, certainly not in Jo Walton’s art.
Jo Walton, Steel, Copper, Rust, Gold, Verdigris, Wax, on show at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until January 23 2025
Jo Walton: back story
Jo Walton, at Rogues Atelier Art Studio, on the get-around “scooter” that enabled her to complete works for her North Yorkshire Open Studios exhibition after breaking her right leg in a fall
GRADUATED from Bradford University with degree in Fine Art in 2005. Founded community arts centre in Walmgate, York, and delivered community art projects at York Art Gallery.
In 2012, she founded Rogues Atelier Art Studio in Fossgate, York, where she creates abstract land/sea/colour-scapes focusing on horizons, using gold, silver, copper, metal leaf, oil paint and wax, playing with oxidation – rust, verdigris – on plastered wooden panels.
Her work is inspired by extensive travel, sailing in her twenties and delivering yachts, preceded by her childhood years living in Australia.
Jo participates regularly in York Open Studios, Staithes Art and Heritage Festival, Saltaire Open Village and, more recently, in North Yorkshire Open Studios. She has held solo exhibitions at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, and has been commissioned to curate exhibitions there.
Jo is known for her industrial-styled commercial interiors, designing for bars and shops. She designed and project-managed The Angel On The Green, Bishopthorpe Road, and Bluebird Bakery, in Acomb Road, Acomb, Shambles Market, York, Kirkgate Market, Leeds, and Butcher Row, Beverley.
A note on rust in Jo Walton’s work
Jo Walton’s artwork on show at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
THE method to preserve and prevent further rusting of the metal plate has been researched, tried and tested by Jo for more than 12 years, to the point where she is certain of its durability. The first successful pieces are in her home, where she reports no change.
“I’ve been fascinated by rust forever,” she says. “Growing up in Australia with the red dust and the searing heat burning everything, I was fascinated by rusted metals and especially by the colours they gave off: those absolutely beautiful colours.
“Then I got rust spots on my jeans that wouldn’t come out. I thought, ‘there might be something in this’, so I looked at printing with rust, which took a while to work out. People liked them, and once I began printing onto metal plate, people loved them – especially men.
“What I’m playing with in my works is the shine of the gold through the matt of the paint. I’m using oil paints, whereas the classic iconic art used egg tempera. It’s painted on to gold metal leaf, so it’s textured, painted black and then polished.
“When I went to Bradford University, my first instinct was to paint almost in the iconic style, but it was the time of Tracey Emin and the Young British Artists, which was a sad time to go to university to study Fine Art if you wanted to do traditional techniques, like I did!
“They were all into modern art, but if I’d stuck to my feelings about the traditions of art, I would never have done the rust works!”
