Thurs 19 September | Deaths At Sea (Our Star Theatre)

A small theatre company are performing their new murder-mystery play ‘Death at Sea’, but despite their best efforts, everything goes wrong! 

Their play, ‘Death at Sea’, is a thrilling murder mystery set on a small ship carrying just five passengers and its Captain. When one of the passengers, Mr Inus, is found dead, the remaining passengers speculate and turn on each other until the real murderer is caught… But that isn’t how this play goes! 

In Death(s) at Sea props fail, the set falls down, actors get drunk and concussed, and conversations in the wings reveal too much. If they can only make it to the end of the play before one of them really kills someone!

Thurs 26 September | An Audience without Jake Thackray or Les Barker

John Watterson is delighted to announce his new show for 2024 – ‘An Audience without Jake or Les’, celebrating the life, songs and wonderful wordsmithery of the great Yorkshire chansonnier, and the hilarious poetry of ‘the finest Poet Laureate we never had. The set includes many Jake classics (Sister Josephine, On Again On Again, The Bantam Cock etc), anecdotes from the recent biography plus some recently discovered ‘lost’ Thackray masterpieces. Les Barker’s wonderful poetry is celebrated through such gems as Reg was a Lonely Glow Worm, Dachsunds with Erections, Spot of the Antarctic and Déjà vu.

John Watterson is the UK’s leading performer of Jake’s songs. As Fake Thackray he has toured with Fairport Convention and Jasper Carrott and has performed at festivals, theatres and clubs across the UK and on local and national radio, as well as appearing with Jon Richardson on ‘Meet the Richardsons’. He was a friend of the late Les Barker and continues to sell Les’ merchandise to raise money for Amnesty International, Les’ nominated charity.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Without Jake.

Leeds-born Jake Thackray (1938-2002) is increasingly recognised as being one of the greatest English songwriters of the twentieth century, a unique talent, whose songs are full of poetry, wit, irreverence and humanity. He became known to millions through his regular appearances in the 1960s and 1970s on programmes such as Braden’s Week and That’s Life. Since his death in obscurity there has been growing recognition of his genius and a resurgence of interest in his work. His admirers include Jarvis Cocker, Alex Turner, Don Black, Thea Gilmore, Cerys Matthews, Benjamin Clementine and Neil Gaiman.

John Watterson is the UK’s leading performer of Jake’s songs. As Fake Thackray he has toured with Fairport Convention and performed at Latitude, Cropredy and the Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. He has also played for Jake’s family. John has appeared many times on radio, including Radio 4’s Great Lives, a Radio 2 documentary on Jake presented by Cerys Matthews and Radio 3’s The Verb hosted by Ian McMillan. Most recently he appeared on TVs Meet the Richardsons with Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont.

Without Les

Before turning his hand to poetry, Mancunian Les Barker was a chartered accountant, working at the city’s town hall until 1982. But he found it boring. He discovered that his real talent was in writing silly poems, which he would perform at local folk clubs. He soon became a regular at folk clubs and festivals. By his side was Mrs Ackroyd, his dog and loyal companion. He toured America and Australia, and his genius and silliness were treasured everywhere.

His poems set to music were recorded by the US folk singer Tom Paxton, the English folk singer June Tabor, the English folk group Waterson:Carthy, and many others. The Financial Times praised his work as “a blend of Edward Lear nonsense, Stanley Unwin wordplay, the surreal inconsequentiality of Reeves and Mortimer and the demonic robustness of Stanley Holloway monologues”. Les Barker’s wonderful poetry is celebrated through such gems as Reg was a Lonely Glow Worm, Dachsunds with Erections, Spot of the Antarctic and Déjà vu.

Les had a serious side, too. He was politically aware and had an acute social conscience. His poems The Civilised War, with its opening line of “How goes the war on terror, George?”, and The Church of the Holy Undecided got him into trouble in America, leading to cancelled concerts and a refusal to grant him a work permit for his next tour.

Website – www.fakethackray.com

Testimonials

Sir Richard Stilgoe
“Jake would have loved the skill of the performance, the accuracy of the impression, and the affection it contains. Long may John continue to keep Jake’s memory alive so affectionately and skilfully, and introduce more people to one of the most remarkable talents I ever met.”

Mike Harding
‘Brilliant! We can’t have Jake back but this is the next best thing.’

Ralph McTell
‘John Watterson’s obvious joy in performing Jake’s wonderful songs has inspired him to record these Thackray gems, many of which are receiving their first ever release. My dear friend Jake was a modest and shy man, but I think he would be quietly grinning in approval. John’s collaborator, Paul Thompson, has immersed himself so deeply in Jake’s musicality that the new tunes he has written for some of the songs sound as if they were composed by the man himself. Jake lives again through this album, which is a wonderful contribution to the canon of a unique and sadly missed artist.’

Don Black (Songwriter and BBC Radio 2 presenter)
‘Terrific interpretations.

Sat 19 October | The Noise Next Door – Freewheeling

Buckle up… You’re in for a hell of a ride! The quickest wits in comedy are here to take you on a totally improvised tour around YOUR weirdest and wildest ideas.

The Noise Next Door are going hell for leather in this brand new show as they race through a priceless parade of off-the-cuff gags, scenes and songs, all based on your suggestions.

The Noise Next Door are twelve-time sell-out veterans of The Edinburgh Fringe and have appeared on ‘The One Show’ (BBC One), ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (ITV1), and ‘Roast Battle’ (Comedy Central). They have also appeared alongside the likes of Michael McIntyre, Katherine Ryan, Romesh Ranganathan and Harry Hill. 

“Hilarious… A superior kind of chaos” Telegraph

“21st century comedy at its finest and funniest.” The Stage

“Comedy gold… Staggeringly well executed.” Guardian

“Phenomenal” Daily Mirror

(Age Suggestion: 15+)

Fri 15 November | There’s Something About Typhoid Mary (Living Spit)

Irish immigrant. Cook. Amiable host. Killer?

1906. New York City. Talented cook Mary Mallon takes a job preparing delicious meals for yet another high society family, and yet again they begin to fall ill and die. 

Coincidence? Mary thinks so. 

And now she’s put all that nonsense behind her. 

She’s cooking three courses for a very special guest tonight. YOU! 

That is unless Health Inspector and sanitation expert George Soper can stop her before it’s too late…

Prepare for a toe-tapping, germ-spreading extravaganza where the laughter is as infectious as Mary’s meals.  Featuring live cooking on stage from Stu Mcloughlin as the much-maligned Mary Mallon and Lucy Tuckas the germaphobic George Soper, There’s Something about Typhoid Mary is a contagiously entertaining journey through the dark and sinister world of the killer cook, Typhoid Mary, told with Living Spit’s trademark wit, song and silliness.

With live original music, deliciously tempting food which you can really eat (if you dare), gory deaths a-plenty, puerile puppetry and sackfuls of cross-dressing crassness, this promises to be a feverishly funny feast of fun for some of the family.

Just don’t mention the T-word.