🗞️ Theatres of dreams: September’s best acts to catch

After the lull in events during August, thank goodness the tempo picks up somewhat in September, otherwise I would be in another lockdown.

At the Grand Theatre we have The Mousetrap, which I covered last month but continues until 2nd September, so gets another stab, oops, I hope I haven’t given anything away there. I doubt it as I haven’t seen it yet.

The theatre stays dark until 28th September when we have the first of the autumn productions from Opera North, Falstaff, based on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor. There couldn’t be a more appropriate way to kick off the three operas which comprise The Green Season, as it was written by Giuseppe Verdi, whose name translated from Italian into English is Joe Green, which doesn’t sound quite so sophisticated. Any road up, the Green Season is what it purports to be, an environmentally friendly series of shows utilising already used scenery and costumes wherever possible, making their own on site, or buying second hand, if nothing is available. There are also extra matinees so that public transport is more of an option. Falstaff runs until 25th October but watch this space next month for the others in the series.

Leeds Playhouse is staging The House With Chicken Legs from 13th – 16th September. I am worried that when I go to see this I will be staring at an empty stage as it is about a girl named Marinka who lives in a detached gaff which spontaneously sprouts chicken legs and takes off for pastures new. Let’s hope that it doesn’t get as far as Kentucky or its roaming days will be over should Colonel Sanders get wind of its arrival.

15th September sees a concert by Fredlin Morency who is a young singer/songwriter/musician/composer/musical director and choir director. In fact he is a right clever Dick. He is supported by the Graft, Caution Collective and the Crib Ent ltd. band.

Arts at the Arms bring a night of theatre, comedy, music and more on 19th September with a show called Scratch. It gives you the opportunity to support and feedback to seven new artists. FYI shouting ‘Gerroff’ does not count as feedback.

The Playhouse ends the month with two festivals, the first of which is on 22nd and 23rd September, called Stories in the Air. BBC Drama Conference and part of Aunty’s Contains Strong Language Festival. There is a series of other events in this festival which is being held to celebrate 100 years of radio drama but the Corporation is helpfully holding full details of the dates and events back for another week or so. Cheers!

A festival which is being organised in a far more professional manner, giving people a chance to plan their schedule and space out their ticket purchases to ease the pain, is Leeds International Festival of Ideas 2023 which is being held over the weekend 27th – 30th September. The topics, as you would expect, are diverse, and the people involved even more so with Bimini, Rob Rinder, Ruby Wax, Christopher Eccleston, Davina McCall, Matt Baker MBE, Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Naga Munchetty to name but a few. No wonder the BBC are being so coy about their line-up, they can’t compete with that. For full details please go to https://leedsinternationalfestival.com/

That is the ‘Big Two’ covered but there are lots of other things going on in Luvvieland. Leeds City Varieties Music Hall has a one-man play on 16th September to mark Heritage Open Day. It is called The Audacious Mr Astley and stars its writer, Chris Baltrop. It is about Phillip Astley who is regarded as the first person to open a circus, which he did in 1768. It is being staged to mark the unveiling, by Leeds Civic Trust, of a blue plaque to commemorate another famous circus owner, Pablo Fanque, who gets a mention on the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the track, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite, and who is buried in the grounds of Leeds University.

28th September at the same venue sees a screening of the play A Little Life, starring James Norton, which was recorded live at The Savoy Theatre, London during its recent run there.

To finish off this ramble I will mention another one. Nest is a play, or more like an event, being put on by the National Youth Theatre in conjunction with Leeds 2023. It is set in 2050 which is the deadline for the implementation of the Paris Agreement to reach net zero. It follows Skyler as she attends a bird-watching festival. Appropriately enough it is being performed across the 870 acre grounds of St Aidan’s Nature Reserve at Allerton Bywater. The action moves to various locations on the RSPB site and is performed by over 100 actors, whom the audience follow around. It runs, or should I say walks, from 5th – 9th September with a start time of 7.45pm. For more details please go to NEST website.

For more details of Grand Theatre and City Varieties productions please go to HERE for Leeds Playhouse it is HERE and for Leeds 2023.