Zach Atkinson Archives - charleshutchpress

*Pop of the Gold Tops: Zach Atkinson’s milkman Eddie with fellow cast members Emily Chattle and Richard Galloway in Badapple Theatre’s Eddie And The Gold Tops. Picture: Karl Andre*

GREEN Hammerton company Badapple Theatre’s 25th anniversary tour of Eddie And The Gold Tops is doing the milk rounds.

Delighted to have secured “crucial 11th hour funding” from Arts Council England in March, North Yorkshire’s “theatre on your doorstep” practitioners are back on the road with their best-selling show on its first outing since 2017.

“We’re thrilled to have made it to our quarter century,” says funding and media manager Annabelle Polito. “After two unsuccessful requests for funding support across the autumn/winter of 2022, we were looking at having to close the company this year.

“So, this £24,283 in support means a huge amount. We hope it means we can add to the life of the small communities that we serve right across the country and spread a bit of theatre joy and bring folk together.”

Travelling by van rather than milk float, a cast of York actress Emily Chattle, Zach Atkinson and Irishman Richard Galloway has been milking every laugh from artistic director Kate Bramley’s 1960s-inspired comedy since April 15.

The tour will conclude back home at Green Hammerton Village Hall on June 13 after travels to Northumberland, Cumbria, Lincolnshire, the Midlands and down to Bristol, as well as across Yorkshire, on the company’s return to full-scale touring for the first time since the pandemic hiatus.

*Zach Atkinson, left, Emily Chattle and Richard Galloway in a scene from Kate Bramley’s 2023 tour of Eddie And The Gold Tops. Picture: Karl Andre*

Eddie, the much-loved village milkman, becomes a pop star, completely by accident, in the frenzy of 1963’s music fever, when The Beatles were the cream rising to the top. “You could become an overnight star,” says Kate.

No sooner has Eddie inherited the family milk round from his father than suddenly his songs are heading up the charts. If he can arrive by tonight, he will be on Top Of The Pops [Editor’s pedantic note: TOTP did not start until January 1 1964!].

Confusion reigns and when things take a ‘churn’ for the worse, how will Eddie get back for the morning milk round?

“It’s a very cheerful piece, really funny,” says Kate. “People love the Sixties because it was a very full-on time and the songs were great! It’s definitely got a real feelgood factor, and what’s endured in the 12 years since we first did it is that people need to have a good time. This is our vocation: generating joy!”

Recalling the play’s origins, Kate says: “It took a while to come up with the title. We had the story first, and the reason the main character is a milkman came from a wartime land girl telling us about her time as a milk lady just after the war. Green Hammerton was ahead of the times!

“So, I’d already collected stories from Liz Powley about those experiences, storing away that idea, and then when Jez [composer Jez Lowe] and I started talking about doing something rooted in Sixties’ music culture, it came down to putting a milkman in the story!

*Voice of the BBC: Richard Galloway in Eddie And The Gold Tops*

“It’s not that he’s a ‘singing milkman’, but it’s the contrast between his village life and how he wanders through life saying yes to everything and everybody. He’s just a really nice fellow who, when a producer needs a singer, he says yes, as long as he can be back for morning milk deliveries.”

Compare and contrast with today’s wannabe pop stars. “What’s pure about this story is that Eddie doesn’t want to be a star, he just becomes one by accident, whereas now people say, ‘I’m going to be famous’ and then find a way to do it,” says Kate.

She knew the dawn of the Beatles era would be the ideal setting. “That sound of the Sixties, we were just coming out of the skiffle craze, and everything was really upbeat: Elvis, Eddie Cochran, The Beatles. That’s why people are still drawn to the Sixties’ style. Great fashion; really colourful; anything goes. Teenage led. Politically switched on too. It was a time of excitement and a quest for happiness and not just for yourself.”

As for the cast’s milk tastes, Zach says: “I’m addicted to milk, but it’s got to be refrigerated, not warm.” Richard says: “I don’t really drink milk, but I’d have it in cereals, though I do like coconut milk.” Emily? “I’m vegan, so it’s oat milk or soya milk for me,” she says.

“None of their milk preferences affects their acting,” says Kate, who resides in a North Yorkshire village with dairy herds in the fields. “I’ve written a play about milk. What more do you want?! I’m guilty [of drinking milk] by association!”

Badapple Theatre are on tour with Eddie And The Gold Tops until June 13. For tour and ticket details, go to: badappletheatre.co.uk. Yorkshire tour dates include: Sutton upon Derwent Village Hall, May 13; Cherry Burton Village Hall, May 21; Husthwaite Village Hall, May 24; Tunstall Village Hall, May 25; Otley Courthouse, May 28; June 9, North Stainley Village Hall, near Ripon, June 9, and Green Hammerton Village Hall, June 13 (box office, 01423 331304). All shows start at 7.30pm.

*Kate Bramley: Badapple Theatre artistic director*

Did you know?

IN a brief tour break in June, Badapple Theatre cast member Emily Chattle will be exchanging her wedding vows. Congratulations!

Badapple Theatre’s new cast for The Frozen Roman autumn tour: Ellen Carnazza, Andrew Purcell and Zach Atkinson. Picture: *Karl André*

GREEN Hammerton’s theatre-on-your-doorstep proponents Badapple Theatre take to the straight road this autumn with a revival of The Frozen Roman.

Artistic director and writer Kate Bramley has selected three actors new to the company – Zach Atkinson, Andrew Purcell and Ellen Carnazza – to re-tell the story of how the Romans came, they saw, they built a wall, they went away again…or did they?

When hapless villagers try to prevent a housing development being built in their midst, could the discovery of a burial site under the pub throw them a lifeline? Expect twists, turns and Latin puns as the situation in the village goes “ballisticus maximus”.

Why revive The Frozen Roman, “a very silly show about Romans and immigration” that Badapple first toured in 2019? “This play is still very appropriate,” says Kate.

*Will villainous Drusilla (Ellen Carnazza) succeed in knocking down the old Merry Gladiator’ pub? Andrew Purcell, left, and Zach Atkinson look on. Picture: Karl André*

“I always do social politics by stealth in our plays, and the ‘frozen’ man they reveal at the end to be a Syrian refugee, and that’s because the spread of the Roman Empire spread as far as Iraq and Hadrian’s Wall, and though you think of Romans being Roman, actually they collected people and repatriated them to serve their needs as migrants.

“Our character in the play has come from one end of the empire, and the other end is northern England, so it’s the same story of migration that has gone on in the last 2,000 years. That’s the social politics side to it, the serious side. However, as an audience experience, it’s all about maintaining a feeling of pure joy.

“It’s one of the silliest shows we’ve ever done, and that’s why we’re doing it again, when everyone has been through a bleak time. If we pull out the craziest, silliest story, when there are serious undertones to it too, then we’re doing our job properly, particularly when theatre is having a hard time to get people to come back out.”

Covid confidence is a factor, so too are tightened purse strings amid the cost-of-living crisis. “But the plus point for us is that our tour venues are small and geared to ‘small-scale experiences’. If people have drummed up the confidence to go to a coffee morning, then they’ll go to a theatre show,” says Kate.

*Badapple Theatre artistic director Kate Bramley*

“For our last tour, the audience figures were 70-80 per cent of what they normally are, and we see that as a significant upturn, but the reason for the delay in this tour is the time it’s taken our rural touring partners to come back on board.”

Kate is enjoying working with company debutants Zach Atkinson, Andrew Purcell and Ellen Carnazza. “It’s very exciting for me to get this team together, who are pretty young, ranging in age from their 20s to 30s, relatively new to professional theatre from doing their training,” she says.

“Zach is the youngest of the team at 21 but he’s the most experienced because he did four years in Billy Elliot in the West End aged 11 to 14. It’s an interesting mix of early-career actors who are a lot of fun, completely get the nature of high comedy and are prepared to take risks. The show has an energy to it because they’re all at that stage of their career where they just enjoy getting out there and performing.”

Playing village halls and community centres has a different vibe too. “There’s a level of interacting, a level of conversation with the audience, that’s slightly different to a formal theatre,” says Kate. “People feel they can converse with them and actors have to be in full cheerful control; it’s saying everything is going to be all right, we’re in control, with that cheery confidence to tell a story.

*Can Diana (Ellen Carnazza) come up with a way to save Tessery Hill in Badapple Theatre’s The Frozen Roman. Picture: Karl André*

“When I was at Hull Truck, John Godber drummed into me the idea of theatre as conversation. If you don’t have an audience, you don’t have theatre. That’s what different to watching films. The audience can contribute to each show when you’ve set out the rules that we’re all in this together, whether it’s in a village hall or an air hangar.

“All of the key influences I’ve had have come from companies that have the attitude that theatre should be inclusive, a social conversation for everyone, rather than high art. I think that’s very important now when no-one should be excluded by price or by ‘elitism’.”

On tour for six weeks from October 7 to November 13, taking in North Yorkshire, the Midlands, Lincolnshire, County Durham, Cumbria and Cheshire, The Frozen Roman will visit Tunstall Village Hall, Tunstall, on October 27 at 7.30pm (box office, 01748 811288) and North Stainley Village Hall, near Ripon, on October 28, 7.30pm (box office, 01765 635236 or 07971 093907).

Looking ahead, Badapple’s Christmas show, The Marvellous, Mystical Music Box, will be on tour from December 2 to 30, with full tour details at badappletheatre.co.uk. Written by Bramley and requiring an actor with circus skills, this two-hander involves Rosa inheriting a battered old music box that never seems to work when needed to do so.

“But this year, when she wishes for her family to be reunited at Christmas, all sorts of magical things start to happen,” says Kate. Watch this space for a full preview.

Copyright of The Press, York

Tag: Zach Atkinson

Badapple Theatre on song as Eddie And The Gold Tops does the milk rounds on return to full-scale touring on your doorstep

Badapple Theatre defrost The Frozen Roman for autumn tour as villagers go ‘ballisticus maximus in very silly show’