Celtic Folk Rock & Christmas Fair up next at Ilkley Playhouse

Wednesday, 19 November 2025 18:22

By Caroline Mutton, Ilkley Playhouse

A seasonal favourite, It’s a Wonderful Life, follows folk band Gaelforce and the annual Christmas Fair at Ilkley Playhouse.

Caroline Mutton previews for Your Ilkley Radio.

This coming Friday 21st November Yorkshire Celtic Folk Rock band Gaelforce return to Ilkley Playhouse. Enjoy rocked-up traditional folk songs, self-penned tunes in the traditional style and jigs and reels. In 2023 Gaelforce won, by public vote, on the Introducing Stage at the Great British Folk Festival. Since then, they have been selling out ticketed gigs in Yorkshire and beyond.

Come along to Ilkley Playhouse for some festive cheer and support our actors at this year’s annual Christmas Fair on Saturday 29th November. Doors open at 9.30am where there will be mince pies, warming drinks, the opportunity to meet with friends, browse our Christmas stalls and enter our Christmas raffle. A highlight of the fair is the Greenroom performance: from 10.30am everyone is invited to the Wharfeside Theatre to watch our talented junior, senior and adult students perform devised sketches and individually prepared pieces.

[Rehearsal of It's a Wonderful Life opening on Thursday 4^th December]

Continuing the festive spirit, seasonal favourite It’s a Wonderful Life opens in the Wharfeside Theatre on Thursday 4th December. What makes a life? Commercial success, or the quiet ripples of kindness established by the slightest interactions? George Bailey thinks he knows, until a standard Christmas Eve in the small town of Bedford Falls disrupts his entire worldview. A stage production based on a film, based on a short story, based on a Dickens Novel; It’s a Wonderful Life is the product of over a century of hope, change, and a steadfast festive spirit. Ilkley Playhouse Director says of the play, “What I love about It’s a Wonderful Life is its unflinching message of hope. This adaptation retains that spirit while leaning into the imagination of storytelling. Actors play multiple roles, transform spaces, and create a world from almost nothing. It’s a play that reminds us we don’t always get the life we want, but sometimes it’s the life we need, and that even the smallest acts of kindness can make the biggest difference.” Full of hope, heaven and humanity, this play will certainly get you in the Christmas spirit! The play runs until Saturday 13th December.

Looking ahead to the beginning of next year, our six-week modern art course commencing in January looks at various artistic couples and explores the connections between their works and their contribution to the art movements they belonged to. The course starts on Wednesday 21st January (10.30am-12pm) and considers the work of Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Gabriele Munter and Wassily Kandinsky, Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, Man Ray and Lee Miller, Anni and Josef Albers, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. The course tutor is Dr Simon Marginson, an independent art historian and curatorial researcher. £48 for six sessions.

Stunning female trio Belle Voix bring the timeless sounds of Motown and Northern Soul to Ilkley Playhouse on Friday 30th January. Featuring over thirty iconic hits including Do I Love You, Tainted Love, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Midnight Train To Georgia and more. Starring Sandy Smith, Sophie Mairi and Briony Gunn, whose credits include London’s West End, Cruise Liners and Luxury Hotels, the trio deliver a powerful, soul-stirring performance that will have audiences singing along.

Our next Stagefright Comedy Club takes place on Saturday 31st January at 8pm. Frontlining the event is Liam Farrelly, Scottish Comedian Of The Year from Live At The Apollo, described as having ‘a natural storytelling flair’ (Beyond The Joke). Paisley-born Liam began performing stand-up comedy aged seventeen while still in high school. He went into comedy full-time after graduating and in 2021 he was a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Award at the tender age of twenty-one. He also won the Frog & Bucket Beat The Frog World series in the same year and has established himself as a headline act all over the UK and beyond. Joining him is Double Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee from Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and The Stand Up Sketch Show - comedian Ian Smith. Ian is a regular on BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, which he guest-hosted this year - and has appeared on The Now Show, Just A Minute, The Ultimate Choice, One Person Found This Helpful and his own Radio 4 stand-up series, Ian Smith is Stressed. Also performing is Becky Heaviside, described as ‘intellectual and earthy’ (Notts Comedy Review), Big Shaun, former singer in cult Yorkshire band Everly Pregnant Brothers, and Rob Coleman - 'full of one-liners, he had the packed venue in fits of laughter' (The Jokers Club). The evening’s event will be superbly compered by Anthony J Brown, who has very recently been voted Best Promoter at this year’s Yorkshire Comedy Awards.

To book tickets visit www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk or contact Ilkley Playhouse box office on 01943 609539.