This coming weekend, returning for the sixth consecutive year, is the eagerly awaited Bard in the Yard, with performances at both Ilkley Playhouse and in the Ilkley Manor House courtyard.
Caroline Mutton looks ahead to this weekend and what else is coming up at Ilkley Playhouse.
This year you can immerse yourself in two cleverly adapted forty minute plays - Antony and Cleopatra and As You Like It, directed by Dick Hebbert and Andrew Leggott. Dick Hebbert says of Antony and Cleopatra “Mark Antony, catapulted to power as part of a triumvirate after having ruthlessly hunted down the murderers of Julius Caesar, has fallen into decadent indolence in Egypt under the spell of the country's beautiful queen, Cleopatra. But rebellion is fermenting back in Rome and Antony realises that he will have to return home. Once there he is persuaded for diplomatic reasons to marry Octavia, the sister of Octavius Caesar - when she hears, Cleopatra is devastated. Meanwhile peace negotiations fail and despite his reluctance to go to war, Antony must lead the Romans against Pompey's rebels - but he just can't get Cleopatra off his mind...” Andrew Leggott says of As You Like It “After torrid love in Egypt, it’s pastoral love in the forest of Arden in this Shakespearian favourite. The play includes one of the Bard’s most famous speeches, commencing “All the world’s a stage…” and detailing the seven ages of man. It also marks the height of the Bard’s gender-twisting. In his time, the heroine Rosalind would have been played by a boy, who then dresses as a man. In the forest she in turn impersonates herself as a woman. Confused? Consider the actor!”
Performances will take place at 7.30pm on Saturday 23rd August in the Wildman Studio and at 2pm in the Manor House Yard on Sunday 24th and Monday 25th August (Bank Holiday). If the weather is inclement on the Sunday or Monday, we have the option of transferring to Ilkley Playhouse which is less than five minutes’ walk away. Tickets are just £8 full price and £5 for students.
Tickets for all performances of Bard In The Yard have sold out, so producers have opened up the dress rehearsal to the public, tickets are available at www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk.
Andrew Leggott - drama teacher, actor, Ilkley Playhouse Director and a member of Ilkley Playhouse for nearly forty years - will be running a series of adult drama classes from September to December 2025 (initially). We welcome adults of any age and those with limited or no dramatic experience to participate. You will learn/develop acting skills, consider aspects of the theatre, learn how to do warm-up exercises and improve vocal skills. You will work on body language and facial expression, improvisation and how to interpret a script. You will understand the role of the Director and maybe have a go at performing some Shakespeare! The classes will culminate in a brief performance at the Ilkley Playhouse Christmas Coffee Morning in December. Classes will be at Ilkley Playhouse on Saturday afternoons between 2pm and 3pm. The fee for the one term will be £45 for paid-up members of Ilkley Players, or £65 for non-members, with a reduction of £10 for each additional husband, wife or partner (up to a maximum of one!). Please register your interest by contacting Andrew Leggott by email a.leggott1@btinternet.com or by telephone if you wish to discuss the sessions (01943 602014 or 07986032574).
Our first play of the Autumn and Winter Season is Nigel Slater’s Toast, running from the 11th to the 20th September in the Wharfeside Theatre. Expect the perfect recipe for a night at the theatre – take a story of self-discovery, add a touch of family dynamics and stir in some moments of sadness. Mix it with a generous helping of humour and sprinkle with a charming central character. Serve with energy and wit and serve with friends. Toast is the story of Nigel Slater’s childhood; told through the tastes and smells he grew up with. From making the perfect sherry trifle, waging war over cakes, through to the playground politics of sweets and the rigid rules of restaurant dining, this is a moving and evocative tale of love, loss and….toast.
This season’s literature course is a ten-week course starting on Thursday 18th September. The course explores literary highlights from the weekly magazine The New Yorker, which celebrated its centenary this year. Over the ten-week course you will explore The New Yorker’s evolution from a Manhattan-focused ‘fifteen-cent comic paper’ (as stated by its original editor), to a magazine still able ‘to surprise, delight and inform with accuracy and depth’ (as stated by the current editor). The course runs from 10.30am-12 noon and the cost for the 10-week course is £80.
Our second fringe production of the season is 8x8x8 Magic Waiting, running from the 25th until 27th September. It has a bit of everything – comedy, romance, drama, mystery – eight new plays in one evening, each lasting eight minutes and written by eight different playwrights! The plays are borne out of a recent writing competition, plays that have been carefully considered and selected by the judging panel. This production is part of the Bradford 2025 City of Culture festival, who together with Creative Lives, financially supported this venture and who selected the theme of the production: Magic Waiting, based on Bradford’s own J.B. Priestly, “I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.”
To see what is coming up and book tickets for all our plays and events visit www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk or contact Ilkley Playhouse box office on 01943 609539.
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