Tales of Bacon is a comedic romp through fourteenth-century England, following Elfrida Deverwyck (Gemma Shelton), a ballsy and unapologetic protagonist determined to trek across the country to find her true love, by chance teaming up with Thaddeus Bacon (Adam Elms), a pardoner who delights in offering salvation to the sinners of the land – for enough gold, that is. Continue reading
Well, here we all are again back for the annual rubbish at the York Theatre Royal pantomime, but with one big difference – 2018 is dame Berwick Kaler’s final year after forty years of writing, co-directing and starring in York’s most popular panto. There has always been something homely and comforting about hearing those Geordie tones cry out, “Me babbies me bairnes!” once a year – and this year the moment is delayed by a slightly over-long opening where the rest of the cast ponder what panto they will be doing and whether the script has even been written yet. Continue reading
Music, magic and mistletoe sprinkle the action of Wrongsemble’s brand new family show; a trio of fairy tales with a twist of Christmas spirit. A tight, resourceful cast put their many talents on display with happy harmonies, mischievous mouth-made foley and merry musical interludes. Continue reading
The Royal Shakespeare Company presents First Encounters with Shakespeare, a series of productions for 7-13 year olds across the UK. The Comedy of Errors, directed and edited by Alex Thorpe, comes to York Theatre Royal with over a decade’s experience in bringing Shakespeare’s original text into palatable, engaging versions to children in their communities. Continue reading
This party is anything but little. Greeted warmly with York gin and tonic and Long Island accents, the cast and crew make themselves available to you from the moment you step over the threshold of the John Cooper Studio. Enigmatic suits and skirts of the American twenties beckon you around the building, now transformed into bars, dance halls, lounges and boudoirs. No corner is untouched, no person unwelcomed. Continue reading
Number four in the countdown to completion of the York Shakespeare Project, Coriolanus serves up a simmering vision of strategic class war in ancient Rome via nineteen-eighties Britain. Images of Margaret Thatcher lurk in among bin bags and protest placards stating ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘Corn not Scorn’. Plastic sheaths metal fencing upstage, veiling Frairgate’s black box space as a breeding ground for conspiracy and uprising in this effectively subtle, minimalist production. A disjointed score of upbeat eighties pop music and Thatcher’s ‘U-turn’ speech set the tone for the unsettling tale. Continue reading
Led by Artistic Director Cassa Pancho, Ballet Black celebrates dancers of Black and Asian descent. Cathy Marston’s 2018 narrative piece is based on the 1963 short story The Suit by South African writer Can Themba. Originally published in the inaugural issue of South African literary journal The Classic, the story was banned by the apartheid regime. Though that setting is somewhat lost here without follow-up reading, the emotional truth of the characters’ experience sings through this delicate re-telling that honours both the tragedy of toxic jealousy and the breathless lightness of finding oneself welcomed unconditionally in another’s arms. Continue reading
From the moment that The Castaways opens, with the radio crackling to life to provide context, and Sam (Charlotte Wood) walks onstage, it is captivating. Set in a world in which rising sea levels have decimated riverside cities and displaced the people living there, The Castaways tells the story of Sam, a young mum, and her son, Alfie, through the new Britain this has created. The staging is deceptively simple; with nothing more than a radio, a stool, a tent and a teddy, the White Tree Theatre Company have created a performance that is utterly riveting and deeply moving. Continue reading
London Classic Theatre’s Artistic Director Michael Cabot revives their nigh-flagship millennial production in this new iteration of Charlotte Keatley’s era-hopping domestic drama, purported to be the most widely performed play ever written by a woman, though it is new to York Theatre Royal. Spanning four generations of women, the play examines motherhood, growing pains, innocence and self-preservation. Continue reading
Rona Munro’s 1991 text walks us through modern West Belfast in the palpable aftermath of the Troubles. Distant bombs and gunshots form the backdrop for this slice of life story following four women through personal and domestic trauma. Continue reading