Lauren Crisp, Author at The Stray Ferret

Review: Leeds Playhouse’s Oliver! is a glorious festive treat

Lauren Crisp is a book editor, writer and keen follower of arts and culture. Born and raised in Harrogate, Lauren recently moved back to North Yorkshire after a stint in London, where she regularly reviewed theatre – everything from big West End shows to small fringe productions. She is now eager to explore the culture on offer in and around her home town. You can contact Lauren on laurencrispwriter@gmail.com.

Leeds Playhouse’s festive season kicks off with family favourite Oliver!, and it’s a real Christmas treat.

Set and Costume Designer Colin Richmond creates a Dickensian masterpiece of the Playhouse’s vast Quarry space. His Victorian London is gloomy, grimy and shadowy, where candle-lit lamps illuminate the night and ash falls from a smog-laden sky.

The production is staged in the round, with audience members observing the action from all angles. Additional staging, featuring stairways and platforms, surrounds and spans the main set, with characters departing the stage to appear suddenly elsewhere, creating the feel of a hustling, bustling metropolis, where anyone could be hiding around the corner.

Direction and choreography are flawlessly orchestrated to ensure all audience members, regardless of their seat, feel present and part of this world. Costume and props are also splendidly immersive, and swaps are seamlessly integrated.

The production is made complete by its huge cast, many of whom, naturally, are youngsters, chosen for their parts via an open call-out across the north, and whose talent and commitment shine.

The roles of Oliver and The Artful Dodger are each shared by three young actors over the course of the run; on Friday, 9-year-old Nicholas Teixeira took on the titular role with ease, delivering an adroit rendition of Where is Love? to pull many a heartstring. Felix Holt’s Dodger is as Dickens intended: a boy old before his time. Holt has a natural comedic swagger that will undoubtedly take him far.

As for the grown-ups: Steve Furst makes for a memorable and multidimensional Fagin, his wickedness and greed mingling with fleeting displays of kindliness for his young criminal apprentices. Chris Bennett’s Bill Sikes, meanwhile, shows not a shred of humanity and may be the fiercest iteration of one of fiction’s most vicious antagonists that I have ever seen.

And there is, of course, tune after glorious tune, all familiar, but all elevated by Lucy Hind’s exciting choreography. I loved That’s Your Funeral, led by the marvellously macabre undertakers under whose care Oliver briefly finds himself, and Consider Yourself, a musical lover’s dream with its dazzling, full-cast, high-octane performance.

I’d do anything to encourage you to catch this impeccably produced Christmas spectacular at Leeds Playhouse, running until 27 January 2024.

Review: Dick Whittington is thigh-slapping, side-splitting fun

An extravagant dame, a wicked villain, high jinks and many an excitable child: it must be pantomime season.

Harrogate Theatre’s 2023 show is the thigh-slapping, side-splitting Dick Whittington, and it’s another swashbuckler for the panto lovers out there.

Spirited, sparkling and silly, the tale of Dick Whittington’s adventure to London and beyond makes for the perfect panto plot with bountiful boisterous frolics. The fun-loving cast is infectiously energetic, indulging its audience in a couple of hours of folly and fancy.

The youngest audience members, many dressed up for the occasion, had a ball, singing, dancing and revelling in their participation – especially the many opportunities to shout, boo and hiss.

The grown-ups don’t miss out, with gags to tickle even the weariest parent, and the panto is Harrogate through and through, with mention of local politics aplenty. A rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas doubles up as an advert for many of the town’s local specialties, from Weeton’s hampers to Taylors tea and Pizza Parada.

Set changes are as frequent as the dame’s outfit swaps, and the whole stage is awash with colour, glitter and merriment. A true variety performance, the show is jam-packed with audience interaction, runabouts, singalongs and slapstick humour, and sprinkled with cheeky twists on popular songs, covering everything from Elton John to Harry Styles.

The brilliantly rambunctious Michael Lambourne as the evil King Rat delivered two of my personal favourites: These Claws Are Made for Walking and a rip-roaring rendition of Rat Out of Hell.

As the countdown to Christmas begins, Harrogate Theatre’s custard-pie-covered, water-pistol-soaked, fairy-dusted panto is just the way to get into the spirit. Oh yes, it is!

Review: Calendar Girls The Musical is a cheeky and heartfelt roller coaster

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It’s the Yorkshire tale we all know and love: the remarkable story of a group of ladies in a small Women’s Institute in the Dales, who, after the death of one member’s husband, and wanting to raise money for the hospital that cared for him, did what no WI had ever done before. They produced a nude calendar. Twenty-five years on, the women have raised an incredible £6 million for Blood Cancer UK.

The story was shared with the world in 2003 with the release of a major film, Calendar Girls, featuring Helen Mirren, Julie Walters and a slew of other big names. It was followed by a stage adaptation in 2008 with the same writer, Tim Firth, at its helm.

The newer musical production, now on tour across the country, is a fresh take entirely and a collaboration between Firth and long-term friend, Take That’s Gary Barlow. I was lucky enough to experience the result of this perfect partnership at Leeds Grand Theatre last night.

The two writers’ skills combine to create something totally magnificent. Barlow’s lyrics and melodies elevate the piece to a whole new level: it is as if it was always intended to have a soundtrack. And, to deliver the magic to the stage: an all-star cast of music, television and theatre talent, including Maureen Nolan of the Nolan Sisters and Lyn Paul from the New Seekers.

Eastenders’ Tanya Franks plays the newly widowed Annie beautifully; her rendition of Kilimanjaro, in which she mourns the everyday struggles of grief, is truly heart-breaking. Amy Robbins, of Coronation Street fame, is extraordinarily entertaining as Annie’s best friend, Chris.

Tanya Franks as Annie. Pic: Alex Harvey-Brown

And it really doesn’t end there: every single cast member performs with such life and understanding, their lyrics delivered with meaning and purpose. Each character has her moment, with her own challenge to overcome, from the process of ageing and worries over children, to cheating spouses and turning to the bottle.

I cried with laughter and with sadness; the whole production filled me with an unbridled joy that reminded me why I love theatre. Poignancy, comedy, bittersweet beauty, wrapped up so effortlessly like a present: it’s a rare thing, and a full standing ovation was the proof of the pudding.

As if that wasn’t enough of a roller coaster of emotions for one evening, the revelation that members of the famous WI branch were among the audience was the icing on the proverbial cake.

If you do anything this week, go and see the Calendar Girls doing their thing on stage, plum jam, bare bums, iced buns and all.

The final performance is on Saturday night.

Review: 50 years of Ilkley Literature Festival

For a fortnight in October, the charming town of Ilkley buzzes as bookworms unite for the UK’s second longest-running book festival.

Now in its impressive 50th year, and with more than 90 events spanning 17 days across various venues, 2023’s festival programme caters to every kind of reader. I was eager to get a taste for the Ilkley Literature Festival over the course of its opening weekend.

First on my agenda was Jacqueline Wilson, celebrated author of countless children’s novels, who took to the stage to an audience of enthralled youngsters to discuss the inspiration behind her hugely popular books and to talk about her latest (117th!) penning, The Best Sleepover in the World. This was one of several events on the festival’s programme geared towards children, and it was exciting to see a room filled with young, enthusiastic book-lovers, just at the start of their reading journeys.

Next up was something wholly different, as father-and-son duo David and Ben Crystal discussed Everyday Shakespeare: Lines for Life, their latest co-authored book with a quote for each day of the year. Entertaining and insightful, the pair persuaded me (and many other people, if the queue for buying a signed book was anything to go by) that the Bard’s work, rather than daunting, can actually be rather fun.

Neurodiversity was the key theme of Melanie Sykes’ event, in which the presenter and broadcaster discussed her memoir, Illuminated, written in the wake of a late diagnosis of autism and ADHD. Sykes spoke extremely candidly of her life, career and struggles, with great authenticity and humour.

I then took a detour into the world of ecology at author Sophie Pavelle’s event. She recounted, eloquently and passionately, the tale of her journey around the UK, exploring 10 animals and habitats that are being impacted by climate change, from the harbour porpoise to the mountain hare, which provided the basis of her debut, Forget Me Not.

I concluded my festival tour with a suitably Yorkshire-themed talk, listening to Rick Broadbent, Times writer, exiled Yorkshireman and author of Now Then: A Biography of Yorkshire. Broadbent went down a storm with his local audience, recounting many a Yorkshire tale, including that of the night Jimi Hendrix stopped off in Ilkley to perform a (very brief) gig.

The events I attended were but a glimpse of what this delightfully friendly and accessible festival has on offer. I came away from the weekend feeling invigorated by the diversity of creativity and ideas in what had been just a taster of the programme’s events, and I’d absolutely go back for more. Running until Sunday 22 October, there’s plenty of time to catch one of your favourite authors on stage, or to see something entirely unfamiliar and thought-provoking.

Upcoming headliners include all-round favourite Gyles Brandreth, food writer Grace Dent, comedian Shaparak Khorsandi, journalist Gavin Esler and broadcaster Clare Balding, plus many more; for the philosophers, there’s AC Grayling, and for the Strictly-lovers, Anton Du Beke. For the poetry fans, there is a whole day dedicated to the art form on Saturday 14 October.

Music, food, sport and politics all have a place, and with fringe performances, quizzes, workshops and walks, there’s oodles to do and see in this small town on the edge of the world-famous moor. And when you’re all book-wormed out, a bracing pint at The Cow and Calf is ready and waiting.

Interview with Maisie Adam: The Harrogate-born comedian talks Frank’s Fund and more

“It’s been a mad old time!” says Maisie, as we settle in for a chinwag. Harrogate-born Maisie most certainly has been busy, taking the comedy world by storm with appearances on everything from 8 Out of 10 Cats, to QI, Richard Osman’s House of Games, and the iconic Live at the Apollo. I’ve been following Maisie’s career since her first gigs, and it’s a delight to catch up with her in advance of her hosting the Frank’s Fund Comedy Gala at Harrogate Theatre on Monday 9 October.

It’s been a whopper of a year for Maisie and as well as completing her debut solo tour, she’s been focusing a lot of energy on a major passion of hers: football. She trotted across the globe to Australia to cover the Women’s World Cup and has launched a hugely successful podcast, Big Kick Energy, recently nominated for a Sports Broadcast Award.

Over the summer, she played in Soccer Aid for UNICEF: “I’d grown up watching it and suddenly you find yourself playing football with a load of your childhood heroes.” As if that wasn’t enough, Maisie also got hitched… the day before the match. “I didn’t ever envision it happening the day after my wedding. That was a tricky visit up to Old Trafford. I was very hungover.” I ask Maisie if she gets recognised on the street these days.

“Yeah, it does happen a fair bit now! I guess it’s the haircut. I dyed it for the World Cup. I thought I’d do a Gazza and go blonde… but some people thought it was for the Barbie movie.”

We have a giggle reminiscing about school days at St. Aidan’s, where we both went.

“I was definitely a bit of a loudmouth at school,” Maisie says. “I just liked making people laugh – it gave me quite a buzz. I never translated that into thinking I’d be a comedian.”

Maisie went on to drama school, returning to Harrogate after graduating, not sure what was next. It was at this point that comedy came to the fore.

“During school, I had a weekend job at Fat Face. I used to get so bored and end up daydreaming, and I’d write all these ideas out on till rolls. I put them all into a tin, in my bedroom. When I’d graduated from uni, I was living back home and didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Then I thought, ‘What about comedy? You’ve always been able to make people laugh.’ I found the tin, applied for a gig, and moved all my till roll about into a routine.”

Maisie went on to win the nationwide competition, So You Think You’re Funny? in 2017, and the rest is history. Maisie lives in Brighton these days but is still very much a proud northerner, often returning to visit family, or for work. I ask her what it’s like gigging on home turf.

“It’s really nice. It feels like you’ve got an in-joke with everybody in the audience. And you know what a small town is like – half the time you’re speaking to somebody in the audience and then you clock you know them. You’ll be like, ‘Oh, you gave me my first job!’ That genuinely happened – it was the guy who gave me a job at the village pub.”

I ask Maisie what it’s like being a northerner on the comedy circuit in general.

“People often see you as grounded and relatable and warm. I’ve been doing some voiceover work recently, and I’ll be in the booth with London-based directors who’ll say things like, ‘If you could just add a bit of warmth to it…’, and what they mean is: ham up your northern accent! But there’s also a bit of a snobbery; some people still assume that you live in a house with an outside toilet or that you rear cattle. But I don’t shy away from it. The worst thing is when I go back up north, to see my gran, and she tells me that I’m losing my accent. That’s when I start to panic.”

Maisie is back up in Harrogate very soon to host the annual Frank’s Frank Comedy Gala; 2023 will be the event’s fourth year, and it’s set to be bigger and better than ever. Maisie is a patron of Frank’s Fund, a charity set up by the Ashton family in 2019 following the death of their 14-year-old son, Frank, to Ewing sarcoma, a form of bone cancer. The fund raises money for vital research through the Bone Cancer Research Trust. Like Maisie, Frank attended St. Aidan’s, and when she was approached about putting on a comedy gig to raise money (Frank was a big comedy fan), Maisie jumped at the opportunity. She tells me a bit more about why she got involved.

“Frank and I went to the same school, but I never knew him, and I’ve never been directly affected by bone cancer, but I think it’s really important. Frank’s chances were the same as somebody who’d got that cancer 40 years ago, which just doesn’t make any sense to me. Frank was in the middle of high school when he passed away, and it could really easily have been my little brother; it could really easily have been anybody. I think it’s important that you don’t just wait to be directly affected by something. The funding for research into Ewing sarcoma is so woefully low that unless we have events that focus purely on raising money, the next little lad, or anyone, who gets it, isn’t going to stand much of a better chance.”

Held in St. Aidan’s’ hall for its first two years and online during the pandemic, the gala is moving to Harrogate Theatre this year, a move which Maisie says has helped abundantly:

“It’s a far more attractive gig for comedians. Harrogate Theatre is a favourite for loads of comedians. And it’s good to have an event which isn’t mostly aimed at St. Aidan’s families – it’s now an open Harrogate event and I think that’s the direction to aim for. “A really good indication of how this charity is growing is the fact we sold out this event before even announcing the line-up.”

And what a line-up it is. Maisie will be joined by Jon Richardson, Ivo Graham and Lindsey Santoro; it’s set to be an evening full of belly laughs.

“I’m chuffed to bits. Jon, of course – he’s a big name. Ivo is going to do brilliantly with a Harrogate crowd, and Lindsey just absolutely obliterated the Edinburgh Fringe, where she was on the tip of everyone’s tongues.”

The goal, Maisie explains, is to get to the point where

“everybody in Harrogate knows that every October, there is a comedy gala; we always get a good line up, it’s always a good night, and people want to go. You just buy a ticket because you love comedy.”

Maisie adds,

“Something that is really important for Frank’s family is to keep Frank’s name going and keep him in people’s minds. I think the way you do that is to make an event that people want to go to, regardless of whether they knew Frank.”

Frank’s Fund Comedy Gala is on at Harrogate Theatre on Monday 9 October, as part of the Harrogate Comedy Festival. You can donate to Frank’s Fund here.

Review: An Audience with Barrie Rutter at Ripon Arts Hub

On Sunday evening, celebrated actor and director Barrie Rutter addressed an audience of theatre and poetry lovers at Ripon Arts Hub. This was the finale of a culturally rich season of events in Ripon, and a collaboration between Ripon Poetry Festival and Ripon Theatre Festival.

Yorkshire-born-and-bred theatre legend Rutter received the Sam Wanamaker Award, for pioneering Shakespearean theatre, in 2003, and was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to drama.

He is perhaps best known as the founder and former artistic director of ground-breaking touring theatre company Northern Broadsides, based in Halifax. The organisation was created to bring together northern casts who would speak in unapologetically northern dialect, delivering Shakespeare to northern audiences to perform in venues that Rutter describes as “non-velvet” – from boatsheds in Hull to cattle markets in Skipton. His work gained him a reputation as a true trailblazer and as an ultimate champion of theatre in the north.

With a career spanning over 50 years, spent on stage, on screen and in theatres across the world, Rutter has a great many stories to tell. He seamlessly interspersed personal anecdotes – from mingling with jazz musicians in 1970s New York, to getting drunk in champagne caves with his friend, Hugh Griffith, of Ben-Hur fame, to his favourite behind-the-scenes Shakespeare stories – with poetry, prose, and musings on language, citing everything from Baudelaire to Bilston, along with his poetry, the poetry of his friends, and that of the north.

An entertainer in the purest form of the word, Rutter is forthright and wry, yet measured and precise in his reflections; in the intimate space of Ripon Arts Hub, his thoughts and tales made for captivating listening. His love for language, the way words work, and the magic of word play were all on resplendent display, and he plotted these, humorously and often poignantly, against the story of his life, career, and the people he has met along the way.

Review: Murder in the Dark is chaotic and clichéd

It’s New Year’s Eve; a storm rages and there is a car crash on a country road. An eccentric old lady comes to the aid of the driver and his family, inviting them to stay overnight in a creaky, isolated holiday cottage on her farm. There’s no telephone, no Wi-Fi and no indoor toilet… but there are plenty of bumps in the night.

As synopses go, Murder in the Dark sounded right up my street; in the event, this production, currently at the wonderful and welcoming York Theatre Royal, left me cold.

The play appears to want to be a kind of modern-horror-film interpretation of an Agatha Christie-esque closed-circle mystery. Consistent references to the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice are completely overplayed in an apparent attempt to link to Christie’s classic, The Mousetrap. But The Mousetrap this is not.

The approach to genre is a confused concoction of horror, mystery, melodrama and comedy, but most disappointingly, the writing and characterisations are lacklustre and clichéd. A family in tatters: an alcoholic, Z-list celebrity has-been father, with a rather-too-young girlfriend, a son who doesn’t talk to him, an estranged brother, and an ex-wife who refuses to take him back. We’ve seen it all before.

The ray of light in a cast of actors who have, to be fair to them, been given wholly superficial characters to perform, is Susie Blake, as the mysterious and rather mischievous old Mrs Bateman. Her role gathers purpose and momentum as the production progresses, and it is a relief when she enters on stage to remove us from the predictability that one could otherwise have suffered through watching any low-budget horror flick.

Also a relief were the occasional and affecting ghostly apparitions, providing enjoyable breaks in the action, assisted by effective sound and lighting. The final twist showed initial promise, but an ultimately chaotic denouement denied the audience any neat or satisfying sort of conclusion. Yes, there is murder and there is darkness, but this play won’t be keeping me up at night.

Murder in the Dark is on at the York Theatre Royal until Saturday 23 September.

Review: The House with Chicken Legs is magic on stage

Based on Sophie Anderson’s children’s novel, The House with Chicken Legs has been enchantingly adapted for stage by award-winning theatre company Les Enfants Terribles. The production, currently at Leeds Playhouse as part of a tour across the country, brings the author’s imaginative, dreamy tale to dazzling life and is a resplendent feast for the eyes.

The story, rooted in Slavic folklore, follows 12-year-old Marinka, whose house has legs (specifically, chicken legs) and a mind of its own, taking off to far-flung corners of the universe at a moment’s notice. Marinka’s grandmother is a spirit guide who ushers the dead from this world to the next so that they may sit amongst the stars, and is teaching her granddaughter to one day do the same. The only problem is that Marinka, young and full of life, wants to forge her own destiny in the world of the living.

The production’s fast-paced narrative is at once energetic and emotionally charged, alive with the wonders of storytelling, seamlessly transporting its audience to other worlds entirely, with a compelling blend of stage action, set changes, music, puppetry and mesmerising animation. Creative and beautiful, this is true escapism.

The play’s music is spellbinding, with a captivating score by Alexander Wolfe that journeys from New Orleans to Eastern Europe, to the stars and beyond. Every song serves a purpose (often not the case in a musical adaptation), all accompanied by instruments played by the actors themselves – everything from flute to accordion, saxophone to electric guitar – proving themselves truly multi-talented.

Ultimately, this is a tale of life and death, but one which deals with matters of the afterlife with wisdom and warmth. Anderson notes that in her novel she was eager to “help children see death in a more positive way, as the circle of life”. The stage version delivers on this brief, transforming the narrative of grief into a bright, happy and moving celebration of life.

It is worth stressing that this is not just a play for youngsters; whilst the piece treads delicately on the macabre and the darker questions, audience members of all ages will fall under its spell. This is magic on stage; and yes, chicken legs do feature. You’ll have to see it to believe it.

The House with Chicken Legs is on at the Leeds Playhouse until September 16.

Review: Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap celebrates 70 years

The West End met West Yorkshire last night as Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, the world’s longest-running play, hit the stage at Leeds Grand Theatre. The show’s 70^th anniversary tour is taking the production to more than 70 venues countrywide, meaning us northerners finally have the opportunity to don our detective hats and guess whodunnit.

It is the early 1950s, and newly married couple Mollie and Giles Ralston have just opened a guesthouse in the countryside outside London. As the pair prepare for the arrival of their first visitors, a newsreader on the wireless reports on a brutal murder in the capital. None the wiser, the Ralstons rally, as one by one, their eagerly anticipated guests arrive at Monkswell Manor.

But, as a snowstorm cuts them off from the outside world, the suspicion and intrigue mounts: could the killer be among them? The scene is set for one of Christie’s classic closed-circle mysteries.

The tour’s staging is a no-expense-spared affair: the set is masterful, with its intimate, wood-panelled drawing room; a fire roars in the hearth, as, outside the window, snow falls thickly; scattered trinkets and nick-nacks on side tables place us firmly in the past, as does costume. In the ornate surrounds of Leeds Grand Theatre, where chairs gently squeak under the weight of their occupants and a chandelier glitters overhead, the play feels quite at home.

Yet, the set’s cosiness is challenged by a mounting sense of isolation and unease, thanks to the play’s eight-strong and triumphant cast. Each member so impeccably drawn in the first instance by Christie’s imagination, the actors make their characters their own, with a clear understanding of their unique roles: each distinct and each crucial to the successful telling of the tale.

I understand now more than ever this iconic play’s longevity: a quintessentially British whodunnit, devised by the Queen of Crime, whose flawless recipe for murder mysteries, which made her the best-selling novelist of all time, is just as perfect a concoction on stage as in the pages of her novels. With its tight structure, ingenious clues and final outrageous twist, The Mousetrap is a must-see. Beyond that, my lips are sealed.

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is on at the Leeds Grand Theatre until September 2.

Review: Sense and Sensibility at Knaresborough Castle

Last Friday, in the tranquil grounds of Knaresborough Castle, crowds gathered on the lawns in anticipation of an evening of open-air theatre, and, under a threateningly grey sky, of the heavens opening.

But despite the potential perils of the English summer, touring theatre group Chapterhouse resolved to perform their adaptation of Jane Austen’s much-loved novel, Sense and Sensibility, for their picnicking audience.

It is a tale that follows the highs and lows of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, who embody the titular and often opposing qualities of reason and passion.

An economic set was split to show a wealthy dwelling on one side and a modest cottage on the other. Costume was delightfully plausible and, along with lively and emotive music interposing the drama, the scene was set for a pleasant evening spent in Regency-era England, filled with dancing, duets and duels.

The cast brought to life the wit and satire.

With the elements against them, the small cast of eight was a resilient bunch and, despite some technical glitches, was not deterred.

Without the use of microphones, the cast’s ability to enunciate at volume was truly tested and oftentimes unsuccessful; by having to exaggerate and bellow lines, some of the feeling and meaning was lost, and characterisation was subsequently underdeveloped.

Still, there was a great deal to enjoy in an energetic and fanciful adaptation that managed to convey a great deal of Austen’s wit and satire. George Barnden’s Sir John Middleton, with his outrageous booming laugh, received titters aplenty; Becky Bond captured the melodrama of thirteen-year-old sister Margaret with aplomb; Sasha Snowdon as Fanny was as snobbish as anyone who knows the story might expect; and, Lorna Panton, the impassioned Marianne, was convincing in her heartache.

While not fully equipped for the acoustics of the outdoors, Chapterhouse delivered a congenial and light evening’s entertainment of period drama; and, to everyone’s delight, the rain held off.

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