Balancing act: York Theatre Royal postpones The Penelopiad until 2021 but that enables “a little more dreamtime” for the creative team
YORK
Theatre Royal’s summer production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad has been
postponed.
Originally in the 2020 diary for July 10 to 25, associate director Juliet Forster’s show will be staged in 2021 instead on dates yet to be confirmed.
Uncertainty
surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic is holding up pre-production work by Forster’s
creative team.
Juliet Forster: York Theatre Royal associate director, directing The Penelopiad
Juliet says:
“The joy of Atwood’s work is that it doesn’t date, so although we are
disappointed that we have to postpone our production of The Penelopiad, I know
it will be just as relevant and exciting to stage this wonderful play in
2021.
“And on
the upside, for the creative team involved, having a little more dreamtime on
this story will only make the final staging of it all the more spectacular!”
Written
by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale and 2019’s The
Testaments, The Penelopiad tells the story of Odysseus’ wife Penelope and the
Trojan Wars from her point of view.
Writer Margaret Atwood
Ticket
holders will be contacted by the Theatre Royal box office in the coming weeks.
Isango Ensemble: May tour to York Theatre Royal cancelled; may tour next year instead,
ISANGO Ensemble’s
three-week season at York Theatre Royal in May – the “highlight of their year” –
has been cancelled in light of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The South
African company, whose performers are drawn mainly from the Cape Town
townships, was programmed to perform three shows from its repertoire, The
Mysteries, The Magic Flute and SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill, from May 5 to
23 in Isango’s first visit to York in their two-decade span. Now they hope to
visit Yorkshire next year instead.
Isango Ensemble in SS Mend; Dancing The Death Drill. Picture: The Other Richard
Theatre
Royal executive director Tom Bird says: “We are devastated that our friends
Isango Ensemble are unable to make the trip to the UK. They have been in
rehearsal for a specially curated season of work that was sure to delight and
inspire our audiences with their joyous productions. We hope there will be
another opportunity for us to welcome the company to York in the future.”
Director
Mark Dornford-May, the Yorkshireman who co-founded Isango 20 years ago, says:
“The whole ensemble were so excited to be visiting York for the first time in
our 20-year history. It really was the highlight of the year. To have been
rehearsing the shows and then not be able to play them in that beautiful
theatre is a deeply felt blow.
Isango Ensemble in The Mysteries: Noluthando Boqwana as Lucifer, left, with Devils
“Tom and
all his colleagues have been so supportive throughout the last few difficult
days and together we hope to create a plan to get to play in Yorkshire next
year.”
Ticket
holders will be contacted by the Theatre Royal box office in the coming
weeks.
Did you know?
ISANGO Ensemble is a Cape Town theatre company led by director and co-founder Mark Dornford-May and music directors Pauline Malefane and Mandisi Dyantyis.
THE York Theatre Royal building is closed to the public until further notice.
This morning’s full statement reads: “Following the latest Government advice about Coronavirus, the York Theatre Royal building is now closed to the public until further notice. You can still contact our box office by phone on 01904 623568.
“All Youth Theatre, LAMDA, Crafty Tales and Adult Theatre Workshop sessions will stop running for the time being. Costume hire is also closed until further notice.”
The statement continues: “It’s with enormous sadness that we temporarily close our doors, but the safety of our audiences, staff and community is of utmost importance. We apologise for the disruption and thank you for your support during this period of great uncertainty.
“We are making contact with ticket holders for the cancelled performances. If the closure period is extended, we will be in touch with bookers for future performances in good time, and we’ll also post updates to our website and social media channels. See you soon.”
“Critical situation”: Dark nights, dark days too, at York Theatre Royal until further notice
CLOSED. Closed. Closed. Closed. Closed. York’s theatres have shut down en masse in response to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Monday briefing on Black Monday to avoid unnecessary social contact at pubs, clubs and theatres.
One by one came the measured official statements in response to the rising Coronavirus pandemic, announced with regret, sadness and heavy hearts.
By way of contrast, a tide of anger rose ever higher on social media from the entertainment industry, feeling shafted by the PM not legislating closure, merely advising it.
In doing so, he placed the decision in the (no doubt frequently washed) hands of theatre managements, boards and trusts, whose sense of moral responsibility left no option but to announce closure until further notice as a precaution amid the Coronavirus crisis. When insurance effectively amounts to no insurance, hell by hand cart is the only journey in town.
Lights out: Ellen Kent Company’s La Boheme, at the Grand Opera House tomorrow is snuffed out by the Prime Minister’s Coronavirus dictum
The Grand National, the first post-Brexit Eurovision, the Chelsea Flower Show, Glastonbury Festival, the Euro 2020 football championships, are all scrapped for 2020. A tsunami of further announcements will follow, not least from theatre companies cancelling or postponing tours.
Keep Calm and Carry On may be the mantra, but the fear is that Keep Calm and Carry On may well turn to carrion on account of, well, the accounts.
York Theatre Royal, in St Leonard’s Place, Theatre @41 Monkgate, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, in Haxby Road, and Riding Lights Theatre Company’s Friargate Theatre, in Lower Friargate, have individual boards and managements addressing urgent, previously unimaginable requirements and strictures.
Likewise, the Ambassadors Theatre Group, owners of the Grand Opera House, is co-ordinating the Coronavirus-impacted strategy throughout ATG, making statements for the Cumberland Street theatre, whose staff are now working remotely from home.
Clock stopped: PIck Me Up Theatre’s Tom’s Midnight Garden was curtailed after Monday’s performance at Theatre @ 41 Monkgate, York
These are unprecedented circumstances. Circumstances not even seen in wartime when theatres – some, not all – across the land stayed open through 1939 to 1945.
Circumstances where the new C-word has led to theatre after theatre – together with cinemas, music clubs, museums, galleries, visitor attractions, SparkYork, et al – to issue variations on: “It is with enormous sadness that we take these measures, but the safety of our audiences, staff and community is of utmost importance.”
So, where does each of these York theatres stand now, in a city where, like the rest, the theatre focus is turning to those of the medical variety? The best advice is to visit the theatre websites for information on the present closures, ticket refunds, and, in light of the harsh financial reality, Donate Today requests. “Your support is vital to our survival,” pleads York Theatre Royal bluntly.
A spokesman for the Theatre Royal – take it as read that it was executive director Tom Bird – said: “The closure of theatres in the UK puts York Theatre Royal, along with hundreds of other theatres, into a critical situation.”
Road closed: Riding Lights Theatre Company have had give up The Narrow Road tour for Lent
Does that make it theatre’s version of the intensive care unit? Time will tell, but the arts have a way of defying the last rites, always have, always will, keeping the fat lady singer waiting, the final curtain up in the flies. What they will make of Richmond Rishi’s £330 billion loan scheme is another discussion point for the in-tray, however.
In a nutshell, York Theatre Royal’s shows and public events initially are cancelled until April 11, but there surely will be no miraculous resurrection on Easter Sunday. The York Theatre Royal building, box office and café remained open initially, but the building closed to the public today (March 19). The box office is still taking phone calls on 01904 623568; ticket refunds are underway.
Shows at the Grand Opera House, in common with all Ambassadors Theatre Group theatres, are “temporarily suspended with immediate effect”, with a policy of postponement and future re-arranged dates to be confirmed, rather than cancellations, at this stage.
“We are following government guidance which is currently ambiguous,” say ATG. “It is unclear how long theatres are to remain closed. We will reopen them once the government and medical authorities confirm that there is no risk to our audiences, performers and staff.
The Missing Peace: one of the now missing pieces at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, but with plans for re-arranged dates later
“We are working hard with our producers and performers to understand how this will play out, so we can’t confirm that at this time. We will try, wherever possible, to re-programme shows that have been suspended.”
The Joseph Rowntree Theatre will remain closed “until we receive further instruction that it is safe to reopen”. “We will be issuing further advice in the coming days on how we are going to manage ticket refunds and exchanges,” says trust chairman Dan Shrimpton. “We would ask that you please bear with us and wait for us to contact you.”
The Theatre @41 Monkgate website is yet to be updated following Monday’s Coronavirus ultimatum – the About Us section has Covid-19 Guidance from before – but Pick Me Up Theatre artistic director Robert Readman announced performances would cease after Tom’s Midnight Garden that evening.
He also cancelled Pick Me Up’s Sondheim 90 birthday concert this Sunday and the April 17 to 25 run of The Pirates Of Penzance. Be assured that Coronavirus has been the death of York Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth from March 31 to April 4 too.
Riding Lights, York’s Christian theatre company based at Friargate Theatre, have cancelled their March 16 to April 11 tour of The Narrow Road. “We are very sorry not to be performing this Lent but wish you a happy and safe Easter,” their website says.
Meanwhile, prayers and thoughts go to all those working in the theatres at York Hospital and elsewhere, preparing for whatever is to come.
YORK Theatre Royal is cancelling all
public performances and events until April 11 after Prime Minister Boris
Johnson’s Coronavirus briefing on avoiding unnecessary social contact.
Ticket holders are being asked to consider donating the price of their tickets to the theatre, Britain’s oldest playhouse outside London.
Shows at theatres nationwide have been cancelled in response to yesterday’s Government advice on the Coronavirus pandemic, asking the public not to go to theatres, pubs and clubs.
The Theatre Royal box office will be in touch with ticket holders for the next four weeks of performances, covering March 17 to April 11, and they are being requested not to contact the box office directly but wait to be called.
Executive director Tom Bird said: “The closure of theatres in the UK puts York Theatre Royal, along with hundreds of other theatres, into a critical situation. We are asking that people consider donating their ticket purchase to the theatre at this time. As a charity, their support is crucial to our survival.
“If they cannot do this, we’d ask that
they consider a credit to their account. If none of this is satisfactory, they
can choose a refund.”
York Theatre Royal further advises: “If
the closure period is extended, we will be in touch with bookers for future
performances in good time, and we’ll also post updates to our website and
social media channels.
“It’s with enormous sadness that we
take these measures, but the safety of our audiences, staff and community is of
utmost importance.
“We are looking at ways we can be of
use to the wider York community during this time. More details regarding these
plans will follow.”
The theatre building, in St Leonard’s
Place, is remaining open at present, including the café and box office.
Yotam Ottollenghi: letting the flavour flood out in his new book and York talk
CHEF, restaurateur and food writer Yotam
Ottolenghi will reflect on A Life In Flavour and provide cooking inspiration at
York Theatre Royal on September 17.
Ottolenghi, who is of Italian-Jewish
and German-Jewish descent, will discuss the tastes, ingredients and flavours
that excite him and how he has created a career from cooking.
In the 7.30pm event, coinciding with
the publication of his latest cookbook, Ottolenghi Flavour, he will “offer
unique insights into how flavour is dialled up and why it works, from basic
pairings fundamental to taste, to cooking methods that elevate ingredients to
great heights”.
Under discussion too will be his life
and career, from how his upbringing – he was born to a chemistry professor and high-school principal in West
Jerusalem – has
influenced his food, to opening six delis and restaurants in London.
Yotam Ottolenghi: “flavour-forward, vegetable-based recipes” in his September 3 book
Ottolenghi, 51, is chef-patron of the
Ottolenghi delis, NOPI and ROVI restaurants. He writes a weekly column in the
Guardian’s Feast magazine and a monthly column in The New Yorker and has
published the cookbooks Plenty and Plenty More, his collection of vegetarian
recipes; Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Jerusalem, co-authored with Sami Tamimi; NOPI:
The Cookbook with Ramael Scully; Sweet, his baking and desserts collection with
Helen Goh, and Ottolenghi Simple, his 2018 award winner book with Tara Wigley
and Esme Howarth.
Ottolenghi’s appearance at York Theatre
Royal will come a fortnight after Penguin Books publish his new cookbook of “flavour-forward,
vegetable-based recipes”, Ottolenghi Flavour, wherein he and co-writer Ixta Belfrage break down the three factors
that create flavour.
Please note, there is the chance to buy a copy with your ticket (£15 and upwards) for this Penguin Live evening. Ottolenghi will conduct a book-signing session after the talk. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Watch this space: British European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake to speak at York Theatre Royal in the week of his book launch
BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake will re-live his six-month mission to the International Space Station in his Limitless show at York Theatre Royal on October 11.
Touching down at 7.30pm, Major Peake will
reveal what life in space is really like: the sights, the smells, the fear, the
exhilaration and the deep and abiding wonder of the view from space.
In addition, he will reflect on the surprising
journey that took him there as he tells the story of his path to becoming the
first Briton in space for nearly 20 years – and the first ever to complete a space-walk
– in 2015.
Those tales will cover his time training
in the British Army and as an Apache helicopter pilot and flight instructor
deployed to Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan.
Major Peake also will discuss how it felt to be selected for the European Space Agency from more than 8,000 candidates and the six years of training that followed; learning Russian on the icy plains of Siberia, and coping with darkness and claustrophobia in the caves of Sardinia and under the oceans of the United States.
In this intimate and inspirational conversation, the York audience will hear exclusive stories from Major Peake’s time in space on the International Space Station as he shares his passion for space and science, and the evening will conclude with the chance to ask questions in a Q&A session.
Major Tim Peake on a visit to the UK Schools Space Conference at the University of York in November 2016
The Limitless: In Conversation with Astronaut
Tim Peake event takes its title from his upcoming autobiography, Limitless, to
be published by Century on October 15.
Every ticket for this Penguin Live show – one of only five on the autumn tour – includes a signed copy of the former barman’s £20 memoir; box office, 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Major Peake is due to address children from
more than 100 schools in a flying visit to the UK Schools Space Conference on
Friday, March 20 at the University of York’s department of physics, where children
will present work linking the space industry and education.
Major Peake will share his experiences
in space, most notably the Principia mission that involved a spacewalk to
repair the International Space Station’s power supply with NASA astronaut Tim Kopra;
driving across a simulated Mars terrain from space; helping to dock two
spacecraft and orbiting Earth almost 3,000 times.
Major Peake attended the schools space conference at the university previously in November 2016 and gave a public lecture there on the highs and lows of life aboard the International Space Station in September 2017.
The Soyuz TMA-19M descent module, the capsule that transported Major Peake safely back to Earth, went on display at the National Railway Museum, York, in January 2018, complemented by a space-age virtual reality experience narrated by the astronaut himself.
SLUG and Caterpillar are starving and the only leaf left in the garden is just out of reach.
So begins Slime, Sam Caseley’s squelchy, squishy, surreal, slimy play for two to five-year-old children at the De Grey Ballroom, York Theatre Royal, on April 15 at 10.30am, 1pm and 3.30pm.
Directed by Ruby Thompson, The Herd Theatre’s show is a playful interactive adventure where young theatregoers and their families can expect to “get stuck in with slime” as they help Slug and Caterpillar to work together to form an unlikely friendship, despite their differences.
Just out of reach: the only leaf left in the garden for Slug and Caterpillar
Slug thinks they should work together,
but Caterpillar has other ideas, saying slugs are gross, covered in gooey slime
and have terrible taste in music.
The Hull company’s fully immersive and accessible experience will transform the De Grey Ballroom into a “Slime-tastic undergrowth for all”, with British Sign Language integrated throughout.
“This isn’t a traditional play performed in a
traditional theatre,” says Ruby, the director. “We’re delighted to host a
unique theatrical experience for the very young. During the show, children and
their grown-ups can be as loud as they want: giggle, dance, wriggle and talk.
We can’t wait to welcome York audiences into the undergrowth, created by designer
Rūta Irbīte.”
“Slugs are gross, covered in gooey slime and have terrible taste in music,” says Caterpillar in The Herd Theatre’s Slime
Playwright and composer Sam adds: “Slugs are amazing and their slime is like no other material on Earth, but they get such a bad rep. So, we’ve made a show that confronts this prejudice, and in doing so explores how we judge others before we know them. And you get to invade the stage and play with Slime at the end.”
Defining their brand of theatre, The HerdTheatre say they “make innovative shows about the world young people live in today”. At the heart of everything is collaboration as they play, chat, imagine, share, and create with groups of children.
Slime has only has 12 words in the show, and every word is spoken and signed by the characters in British Sign Language. Furthermore, every performance of Slime is relaxed. “The audience area is well lit. It’s OK to come, go and make noise if you need to,” say The Herd, whose 45-minute play is followed at each performance by 15 minutes of Slime play.
Tickets for the three performances with British Sign Language and Relaxed Performance access cost £8 on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Denis Conway’s Otto Quangel and Jay Taylor’s SS Officer Prall in Alone In Berlin
Review: Alone In Berlin, York Theatre Royal/Royal & Derngate Northampton, at York Theatre Royal, until March 21. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
IT is rare to have a perspective on the
Second World War from within Germany itself, presented on stage or screen.
What’s more, Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret
was a Broadway musical rooted in Anglo-American Christopher Isherwood’s semi-autobiographical 1945 novel The Berlin Stories, set in Weimar
Republic Berlin in 1931 with the Nazi Party on the rise. There could be no more
cynical voice than that of the nightclub Emcee; entertainment at any price.
This year, New Zealander Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, a
satirical account of the last year of World War Two, as seen through the eyes
of a ten-year-old Hitler Youth enthusiast in a German town, garlanded
nominations aplenty in the Hollywood awards season but opprobrium in equal
measure. How did it end? With the boy and a newly free Jewish girl dancing to
David Bowie’s Heroes, sung in Deutsche.
Joseph Marcell’s Inspector Escherich, Clive Mendus’s Benno Kluge and Jessica Walker’s Golden Elsie in Alone In Berlin
Alone In Berlin is a different beast altogether, still with
songs (more of which later), but far removed from the powder and paint, mirage and
murk of Weimar cabaret or a small-town boy’s loss of innocence. The source
novel, based on a true story, was written by a German, the maverick Hans
Fallada, responsible for Little Man, What Now? too.
Also known aptly as Every Man Dies Alone, it was published in
1947 – the year Fallada died of a morphine overdose – but not in English until
2009.
Since then, there has been Vincent Perez’s 2016 film with
Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson and now this York Theatre Royal and Royal
& Derngate Northampton co-production, translated and adapted by playwright
and political satirist Alistair Beaton and directed by James Dacre, the
Northampton theatre’s artistic director.
We watch it through the 2020 filter of grim, vulnerable
times, in a year of floods, storms, immigration intolerance, Brexit’s cold
shoulder, myopic political leaders, and now the creeping spread of Coronavirus.
“This is war,” an exhausted Italian doctor said yesterday.
Resistance movement: Charlotte Emmerson’s Anna and Denis Conway’s Otto Quangel in Alone In Berlin
On the one hand, there is heightened awareness of the need
for collective responsibility, but, on the other, a fear that other factors may
over-power it, and where does that leave individual action as we wash our hands
ever more feverishly? We are indeed, as everyone is in Fallada’s book, very
much alone, and seemingly not in control of our destiny.
Such a feeling prevails in Alone In Berlin, where the central
question is whether an individual can make a difference through courageous acts
of protest when standing up against the drowning tide of Nazism.
Hard-working carpenter Otto Quangel (Denis Conway) and worn
housewife spouse Anna (Charlotte Emmerson) have just learnt that their only son,
Marcus, has died in action, honourably serving the fatherland, the letter says,
but they see no honour in it. Nor does his fiancée Trudi (Abiola Ogunbiyi), who
joins the Resistance movement, although the subsequent arc of her story shows how
ultimately alone everyone is under duress.
Yes, they had voted for Hitler – more precisely Otto told Anna
which way to vote, she says – with Hitler’s promise of jobs to end the
Depression, but they had since grown disillusioned. Their boorish, bragging bully
of a neighbour Borkhausen (Julius D’Silva), feels empowered to persecute the
Jewish woman next door; he and petty criminal Benno Kluge (Clive Mendus) are
exploiting the vulture opportunities of Nazism’s tyrannical grip.
Jessica Walker’s Golden Elsie, centre, with Charlotte Emmerson’s Anna and Denis Conway’s Otto Quangel in the shadows
What would you do in such testing circumstances? Keep your
head down? Keep making coffins as carpenter Otto now is? Or start a campaign of
civil disobedience, as Otto decides he must, no matter how small the defiant act,
prompting him and then Anna to write to write messages on postcards he stealthily
distributes across Berlin, calling on fellow Germans to resist?
Most fall into the hands of the authorities, represented in
Fallada’s suffocating story by Gestapo officer Inspector Escherich (Joseph
Marcell), a veteran policeman, adapting to do what he must do to survive, and his
superior, SS Officer Prall (Jay Taylor), ambitious, merciless, the embodiment
of all the very worst Nazi stereotypes.
Once the trail leads to Otto – spoiler alert – the most
telling scene has Otto confronting Escherich’s expediency. “You don’t believe
in anything,” he scolds him. That shocks Escherich to the core, and in turn it
challenges us too, to cling to our beliefs, to cling to hope for the better path,
to defy, to resist, if necessary, and to go it alone as the starting point, but
with conviction that others will follow.
Dacre’s meticulous, methodical production is one of very high production values, and devastating performances by Conway, Emmerson and Marcell in particular, but it is not wholly successful.
Omnipresent angelic statue: Jessica Walker’s Golden Elsie
Beaton’s script sometimes sails close to the prosaic, and Jessica Walker’s omnipresent angelic statue Golden Elsie, matching the black and white of Jonathan Fensom’s stark set and Nina Dunn’s video designs, will be a divisive figure for audiences.
Essentially a one-woman Greek chorus, she is more reporter than commentator, and while she may echo Weimar cabaret in style, Orlando Gough has given her dissonant, flatlining operatic songs, always eluding a tune and relentless as toothache. This is probably deliberate, but the sheer number of songs is a drag on the play’s momentum.
Jason Lutes’s illustrations from his graphic novel Berlin are used brilliantly, Charles Balfour’s lighting is in turn dazzling, oppressively dark and intimidating; Donato Wharton’s sound design is exemplary.
Ultimately, Alone In Berlin, will have an impact beyond those
fault lines in its telling. It will make you think, reflect, whether alone, or
better still, together in the bar afterwards. Hopefully, too, it will make you want
to make a difference, to push back against the crush, to be the first flutter of
the butterfly’s wing.
Juliet Forster, left, directing rehearsals for Out Of Character’s Less Than Human
SOMETHING strange is happening,
something disturbing, say York company Out Of Character in Less Than Human,
this week’s production at the York Theatre Royal Studio.
After their sold-out November 2017 show about Victorian freak shows and mad doctors, Objects Of Terror, they are collaborating once more with the Theatre Royal, whose associate director, Juliet Forster, again directs the new piece.
Out Of Character’s publicity artwork for Less Than Human
Less Than
Human plays out against the backdrop of Planet Earth having less to give but
its inhabitants
taking more. In this struggling world of diminishing resources, humanity is
forced to wrestle with the true cost of survival. What does it mean to be
truly human? Are some lives worth more than others? Who decides who lives and
dies? A question that suddenly has a new urgency and prescience amid the
rise of Coronavirus.
As evolving technologies offer new
forms of “human being”, is there still hope for a bright future…or do some
people have to pay the price, the play asks.
Out Of Character in rehearsal for Less Than Human
Out Of Character’s company of artists and
performers brings together people who use or have used mental health services.
Their bold, creative and darkly comedic approach to making theatre aims to stir
both the mind and the heart.
The company won the Excellence in
Equality and Cultural Diversity Prize at the 2018 York Culture Awards. Audiences
on social media have described their work as compelling, deeply affecting,
intense, beautiful, clever, articulate, challenging, powerful, poignant and
thought-provoking.
Out Of Character cast members in a tug-of-war scene in Less Than Human
Out Of Character’s previous shows included Tales From Kafka in July 2010, Henry IV in May 2012 and More Tales From Kafka in November 2014.
Less Than Human runs from Thursday to Saturday (March 12 to 14) at 7.45pm nightly. Tickets cost £10, concessions £8, on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
