The Pryordurkins

Posts Tagged ‘theatre’

With two previous pantomime visits behind us where we have gone along to see the annual Berwick Kaler production at York Theatre Royal, we are delighted to have discovered the date when the tickets go on sale for Humpty Dumpty, the 2009/10 pantomime.

Extract from their press release

Humpty sat on a wall then had a fall.   Not much of a plot even by Kaler’s standards – or is it?

Let the team that brought you the acclaimed Dick Turpin stretch your imagination to Herculean proportions with a brand new hilarious version of this classic nursery rhyme.

Will the orphaned Humpty find a mother?   Can he protect the tiny Kingdom of Pantoloon from the evil Eggula? What happens when our Panto Heroes are forced to venture into the real world?

Booking for the panto event The Sunday Times consistently rates one of the top five attractions to see anywhere in the UK during the winter season.

Having had such good times previously, we will hopefully be at the front of the queue for the upcoming tickets!

Oh yea….sorry…..was wanting to hold back…..but the date the tickets go on sale is…….

From March 2nd in person at the box office or from March 3rd online or by phone.

Returning home today from working in and around the South East I found newly printed cards confirming our joint membership of York Theatre Royal.  We’ve come to be regulars at this fantastic theatre so thought joining up would be a good thing.  For the £58 pa fee, we get 10% off up to 4 tickets per show, and  10% off all food and drink when we’re there.  They also offer up special events, newsletters and other special promotions.  There might even be the chance to meet some of the cast one day.

The thing I particularly like as well, is the ability to get the discount even when booking your tickets online; which is usually my preference because we tend to need our diaries to hand when booking things up in advance.

Membership

We went along to the Grand Opera House in York on Saturday gone, for the first time since moving here in 2007.  We had booked into see the Huge Party Band play to a capacity crowd.  We arrived at around 7pm and made our way to the Dress Circle bar, where a young guy was serving customers from behind a small counter.  The small number of available seats were all taken by this point so having got our drinks which were very reasonably priced, we stood around a while taking in the decor.  It is probably fair to say, the Dress Circle bar has seen better days.  The wallpaper was peeling in places and down one side of the wall a very large crack run from top to bottom.  This was the cause of much merriment especially when Paul said he was pleased we didn’t have seats in the stalls.  Around the walls were posters for upcoming events ranging from Opera to tribute bands.

7.30pm was approaching so we made our way into the auditorium for the show.  The main theatre has classic styling with a range of private boxes either side but again it is probably long overdue a face lift.  Even a fresh lick of paint would have helped.  We were seated in the Grand Circle which as well as having row upon row of seats, had wooden lean too barriers between each row.  This was certainly useful when during the show we were required to stand on our feet, mainly by our fellow customers, but the wooden panels did feel a little like a football terrace as well.  Throughout the show, people kept going to the bar, bringing back many a tray full of beer.  We’d never really seen this in a theatre before, so it was quite novel.

Anyway, the evening ended early for us and we can now say, we have visited the other main theatre in York.  You can read what we think about the Huge Party Band here, but for the Grand Opera House itself, we give it a Pryordurkin rating of 2 stars.

We were joined by Christine, Graham, Jessica and Marissa for the weekend and as well as visiting the panto, we found ourselves going off to Bridlington late Saturday morning.  To say it was cold is an understatemnt. As we travelled across East Yorkshire passing through Wetwang, the temperatures dropped to minus three and the trees that lined the road were thick with white ice and putting on the most fantastic show of winter scenery.

We parked up at the harbour and walked up to the recently refurbished Spa ordering up hot chocolate drinks and sitting in the cafe that has views across the North Sea.  A little wandering about Bridlington followed before the obligtory fish and chip meal, after which we could take the cold no more and started the journey home.  Saturday was panto time and you can read our review here.

Sunday morning called for my preparing a traditional Sunday Lunch.  Before that though we all went for a walk into Dunnington and the kids had a great time playing in park.  Even Jessica and Marissa enjoyed themselves!

All in all we had a very nice weekend playing host to Christine, Graham, Jessica and Marissa.

UPDATE:  Tickets go on sale for the 2009/10 Berwick Kaler Pantomime.  More Info Here

If consistency is a sign of quality then Berwick Kaler has it all.  Following our first visit to the pantomime at York Theatre Royal last year where we saw Sinbad the sailor (read our review) we returned with much anticipation this year accompanied by my Sister, Brother in law and kids from Cambridgeshire.  Arriving at the theatre at around 7pm last night the place was packed to the rafters.  The bar and cafe areas on all floors were full of eager punters like us who are now hooked on the Berwick Kaler York Theatre Royal pantomime experience.  Celebrating his 30th year the show included many an actor who have themselves been coming back year after to year to play at York.  David Leonard who we last saw starring in a Man for all Seasons, has now notched up 21 years as the baddie!  Martin Barrass celebrates 23 years playing the fool and Suzy Cooper has 14 previous appearances under her belt.  The upcoming Vincent Gray, who is very pleasant on the eye remarked during the show that he would like to return to York year after year after year.

Anyway, the show started and with the now familiar style, we were hooked from the outset.  You simply can not stop yourself from having a smile on your face from the moment the curtain goes up until well after you get home following the show.   There is little by the way of plot, but this only adds to the fun which you might think is all chaotic and made up on the spot, but is in fact very well rehearsed and outstandingly professional.  The actors and I use that word, because they are true to their art, play their parts extremely well indeed.  You could easily be forgiven for thinking these people are for real.  They link with the audience with ease and Berwick Kaler seems to have a knack for gripping the attention of everyone in the house.  His Amy Winehouse sketch met with rapturous applause and calls for more… more.  David Leonard plays the role of baddie as mentioned before but pulls it off in such a way, that he must be one of the most loved baddies every portrayed on stage.  He seems to have the crowd in the palm of his hands whenever he is on stage.  Which is quite a lot as he humorously remarked in a throw away comment.   Suzy Cooper who slowly turns into that well known Dick Turpin character of a bat! is a real class act.  Her demeanour and her voice are so versatile that along with Berwick Kaler and David Leonard, she would hold the stage as her own.

The show ended a stroke after 10.00pm and with two and half hours of professionally produced and acted mayhem loosely coupled around the legend of Dick Turpin, we were once again delighted to have joined many a regular fan of York Theatre Royal pantomime for a great nights entertainment.  The kids even managed to get the heavily sort after Waggon Wheel, who the Gaurdian reviewer (read it here) has been trying to get himself for a many a year gone past.  The kids must just be plain lucky.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it runs to the end of January 09, but to be honest the likelihood of getting a ticket now is slim.  These shows have been sold out for weeks if not months.

Pryordurkin rating 5 stars.

Having worked very late last night I had a great lie in this morning.  With us spending the weekend in London, the only thing I needed to do was check out of one hotel and check into the other.  I arrived at the Crowne Plaza on Buckingham Gate around 2pm and after a spot of coffee in the lounge was shown to our room by Philippe. (nice warm smile).  I was very pleased to discover we had been upgraded to a suite and with the bags unpacked, a warm bath ahead and a soft fluffy bathrobe to lie around in, the only thing missing is Paul who gets into London around 6pm.  I’ll just have to take in a movie and perhaps crack open a bottle of wine to unwind with.  The reason we are spending the weekend in London is that we are off to see Monkey:Journey to the West at a specially built theatre next door to the O2 arena.  We’d followed a documentary about the making of this new Chinese Opera written by Damon Albarn and just have to see.  We’ll post a review after the event.

Having stopped off at the York Theatre Royal while on our Saturday lunchtime excursion into the City we decided to buy a couple of tickets for that evenings performance of Death of a Salesman.  The write up indicated we were not exactly going to have a rip roaring barrel of laughs and as it turned out we didn’t.  Until now, we hadn’t heard of the play by Arthur Miller which first opened in New York in 1949 and according to the programme has being packing them in ever since.  Directed by Damian Cruden, Artistic Director at York Theatre Royal, it was two and a half hours of intense contradiction as we followed the lives of the Loman family as Willy slowly descended into a complete breakdown resulting in he taking his own life.  George Costigan spent much of his time switching between calm measured discussion to outbursts of anger that came from nowhere.  Eileen O’Brien who playes his wife Linda, slowly throughout the play builds the tension without you ever realising it and at its conclusion steals the show.  Joseph Rye and Kieran Hill who both play Willy’s sons give believable performances and like George Costigan seem to be able to switch emotions from light hearted fun to deep dark outbursts of anger.  When Kevin McGowan who plays Uncle Ben first appears on stage I was reminded of Colonel Saunders from KFC, but within a couple of scenes had bought into the character he played.    I am not sure Paul entirely gets theatre, primarily because at what point he said, “I don’t get theatre”, but at least I ‘enjoyed’ it.  I did find myself laughing at the end though because of all the old dears in tears in the audience as the curtain fell.

Pryordurkin rating 4 Stars.

Running from 31st October ‘08 thru 29th November ‘08. Telephone 01904 623568

Along with Sticky T. and Evil Edna I went along to see Avenue Q The Musical at the Noël Coward Theatre in St Martin’s Lane, London on Monday evening.

Having read a number of reviews I booked the tickets through Lastminute.com but in reality was not quite sure what to expect from the show.  However within minutes of it starting we were all hooked and very happy with our lot. The humour, the lyrics, the tunes and the acting were all very good indeed and the next two hours quickly passed by, as the story about puppets living on Avenue Q played out in front of us.  We learnt through some very catch tunes, that we are all just a little bit racist and that the internet is primarily for Porn!  Avenue Q in my view is best described as Sesame Street meets Rocky Horror and frankly it was a great combination of music and humour.

We were also lucky enough to bag front of house seats, so with great views of the stage things could not have been better.  The theatre itself was pretty full, the service at the bars was prompt and curteous and overall the experience was very positive indeed.

Pryordurkin Rating. 4 Stars.

We went along to see Born in the Garden starring Stephanie Cole and Simon Shepherd at the Cambridge Arts Theatre yesterday evening.  A play about Maud and her son Mo who live in a decaying mock Tudor house in Bristol.  She chats to people on the telly, he converses with the cat and both share a penchant for bizarre cocktails, tinned food and keeping the past alive. The theatre itself had quite a few empty seats in the Circle and the audience were predominantly older than the two of us and were of the ‘nose in the air’ variety.  Although the acting was good, especially by Stephanie Cole, we unfortunately found the play boring.  Peter Nichols wrote this in 1979 and it was described as hilarious on the advert outside the theatre.   We didn’t find it that funny despite trying with a couple of added G&T’s and brandies along the way.  There would be the occasional chuckle from Dusty but for me I just couldn’t get into it at all.  Sorry Stephanie; your agent needs to get you better scripts.

Rating. 2 Stars.

We booked up on Friday to go along and see The Sleeping Beauty on ICE by the Imperial Ice Stars at Castle Howard on Saturday evening.  Playing in the tented palace which covers over 1.5 acres, they built a temporary theatre with its own ice rink for this show.  We arrived at 6.45 and parked up just outside the tents.  Having picked up our tickets at the box office we headed to the bar to pick up a couple of pre-show drinks.  Situated in the grounds of Castle Howard we took the opportunity to take a few photographs along the way.  The show started at 7.30 and it was a shame to note they had a few unsold seats because the next two hours were very entertaining indeed.  With the mix of Tchaikovsky’s music, the story of sleeping beauty and some very good ice skating, it was thoroughly enjoyable.  A few mistakes were made along the way, but the manner in which they quickly recovered and got back up on their feet showed how professional they were.  The only slight thing that disappointed was the sound system in use.  With high quality music systems the norm these days, we think they should have invested a little more in their own sound system to do Tchaikovsky’s music justice.  The narration as a result was a little hard to hear.

Anyway despite that, if you get a chance, go see this show.  It isn’t really for children and do take a light jumper as it can get chilly, but you will have a good night.

Rating. 3 Stars.