Parliament Street will be transformed into an astro-turfed village green with three live performance venues later this month when it plays host to the first ever Great Yorkshire Fringe. CHARLES HUTCHINSON looks at what's in store...

MARTIN Witts began working at York Theatre Royal at the same time as Mark Addy, both off stage in the carpentry department.

Addy has gone on to international fame, via The Full Monty, The Flintstones and myriad subsequent roles.

What of Martin, who once did "probably the worst audition ever for York's Yorkshire Youth Theatre"? Well, he has the Leicester Square Theatre and the Museum of Comedy in his London portfolio and took New York's queen of comedy, Joan Rivers, to the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe.

This month the impresario with Wit in his name is putting his comedy eggs in one big York basket for the inaugural Great Yorkshire Fringe, featuring a certain Mark Addy in conversation on Yorkshire Day among the 130 shows.

For ten days, Parliament Street will be transformed into an astro-turfed village green a quarter of a mile in length with three venues for comedy, cabaret, theatre and music.

"We've knocked on the door for a while, initially through the York Museums Trust to do it in the Museum Gardens, but no-one would commit to it in the long run; we were also offered Hungate and Rowntree Park two years ago, but that's for the future maybe," says Martin. "What we've done instead is commit ourselves for three years to Parliament Street, with agreement in place for two more years.

Martin is running the festival independently with no council or corporate funding, supported instead by private funding from ten backers, eight of them from Yorkshire, plenty from York.

In a festival of the "weird, wise and wonderful" from July 24 to August 2, Martin and his festival team will present "a Pub Landlord called Al; a comedy ambassador from Germany [Henning Wehn]; a Stick Man to delight families; a swinging barge [Arts Barge Project]; a One Man Breaking Bad; three days of Japanese techno kings SIRO-A and a trio of gorgeous singing drag queens, The Supreme Fabulettes".

Then add "soul man Reginald D Hunter; Paul Merton and Impro Chums; a Golden Pudding Award for new comics; The Amazing Bubble Man, on his first trip to York; a feast of Coquette burlesque; West End Magic!; Thinking Drinkers' Guide to the Legends of Liquor; John Hewer's Tommy Cooper tribute; Margaret Thatcher as a drag cabaret superstar; a Free Fringe with 20 comedy shows and a Poetry slam with York's Say Owt Slam".

York Press:

Martin Witts

The festival will be spread between the 400-capacity White Rose Rotunda, at the Pavement end of Parliament Street; The Tea Pot, by the disused fountain, and The Turn Pot on its tod on St Sampson's Square, with the Fringe benefits of Yorkshire food and drink in the Barn Pot Bar area beyond the forlorn fountain.

"The biggest location is a 1920s' spiegeltent, the Moulin Rouge tent where Marlene Dietrich first sang, with stained glass windows and mirrored walls," says Martin. "As a design, it gives you an advantage straightaway as you have height for the rigging."

Among its diverse highlights, the White Rose Rotunda will become the pop-up gaff of publican Al Murray for no fewer than four shows with special guests in The Pub Landlord's Saloon and will host Ronnie Scott's All Stars Quintet in The Ronnie Scott's Story. Look out too for The Great Yorkshire Fringe Yorkshire Day Podcast with Tim Brooke-Taylor, one of the original Four Yorkshiremen from the infamous 1967 sketch on the At Last The 1948 Show. Maybe, just maybe, says Martin, the Four Yorkshiremen could be reenacted with an impromptu star cast. Watch this space.

York Press:

Reginald D Hunter

The 300-seat Turn Pot is a second, smaller spiegeltent that will house such shows as Matsuri's festival of music inspired by Japan; Moulin Ouse with York burlesque troupe Coquette; James Campbell's Comedy 4 Kids; and previews by nonsense maker Tony Law and serial innovator Simon Munnery.

The Tea Pot is a newly commissioned performance space with a capacity of just under 100, where the Free Fringe will run each night from 8.45pm. "We'll have tea pots hanging up and lights leading to it so it'll feel like a Moroccan garden," says Martin.

The Great Yorkshire Fringe New Comedian of the Year heats will run there from 5.30pm nightly with more than 100 participants. "It will culminate in a fantastic final on the last day, when the winner will receive the coveted Golden Pudding Award and £500 cash and will be booked to perform at Leicester Square Theatre in the West End," says Martin.

The Great Yorkshire Fringe may not be on the scale of the Edinburgh Fringe's month of shows by thousands of performers. "But we'll have shows each day from 10.15am to last shows starting at 9.30pm, with an extension to 11pm", says Martin. "You could see eight shows in a day; some will be an hour long; others, like Al Murray and Henning Weng, will have an interval."

Prices will range from free to £25.50 for Al Murray with family tickets available too. "I think there's good value in our prices, if you think of pricing aimed directly at families on a destination day out, or if you think of the fact you'll be seeing performers close-up in small venues when normally you'd have to pay to see them in a 1,500-seat venue," says Martin.

Looking ahead to next summer's second festival, he has plans to bring north a new show about comedy writer, actor and comedian Marty Feldman, written by Robert Ross and directed by Monty Python's Terry Jones, and he hopes the Arts Barge, on the River Ouse, will be a "natural space" for expansion too.

BLOB For tickets and full listings visit greatyorkshirefringe.com or call 01904 500600. You can follow the Fringe at facebook.com/yorkfringe and twitter.com/yorkfringe using the suitably Yorkshire hashtag #funnyasowt.

 

Our pick of ten highlights

  • Stick Man – Live on Stage. Friday 24 – Sunday 2 August (not 27 July), 10.15am and 12.15pm. Adult £15, Child £10, Family £40.

Scamp Theatre’s adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s children’s book Stick Man

  • Al Murray – The Pub Landlord’s Saloon. Friday 24 & Saturday 25 July. 5pm & 9.30pm. £25.50.

The Nation’s favourite pub philosopher turns pop-up publican and invites you to his jumped-up tent saloon.

  • The Arts Barge Project Presents... The Great Yorkshire Swing! Sunday 26 July, 7.30pm, £12.50

A sensational night of vintage swing music and dance. Featuring Rinkadon Jukeboy’s Blind Tiger Dance Band with some of Yorkshire’s finest and up-and-coming musicians.

  • One Man Breaking Bad, Monday 27 July – Saturday 1August, 6pm, Sunday 2 August, 3pm, £15.

LA actor Miles Allen runs through his supercharged, hilariously accurate renditions of all the iconic
characters from Breaking Bad, including Walter White, Jesse, Saul, Skyler, Hank, Walt Junior, Mike and Gus Fring. Yo!

  • The Amazing Bubble Man, Tuesday 28 July – Thursday 30 July, 2.30pm, £8, family £30

The Amazing Bubble Man conjures shrieks of laughter and gasps of amazement
from all ages.

  • West End Magic: Magic Workshops for Children, Friday 31 July 12pm, and Saturday 1August 10am & 12pm, £15

A fun, interactive workshop for children aged 7-13 taught by a top Magic Circle London
magician.

  • Mark Addy, Saturday 1August, 4.15pm, £10

York’s favourite actor and comedian in conversationwith Robert Ross.

  • Margaret Thatcher, Queen of Soho, Saturday 1 August, 7pm, £15

The Fringe sensation comes to Yorkshire after 2014’s total sell-out run at the Edinburgh

Festival, in a drag comedy musical extravaganza like no other. On the eve of the vote
on Section 28 Maggie gets lost in Soho and accidentallybecomes a cabaret superstar...

  • The Great Yorkshire Fringe New Comedian of the Year Final, Sunday 2 August, 5.30pm, £10

The punters voted for their favourites in the heats, and now the finalists perform for industry judges to determine who will be crowned the very first Great Yorkshire Fringe New Comedian of the Year...

  • Say Owt Slam, Sunday 2 August, 5.30pm, £5

York’s only regular poetry slam, bringing poets from across York’s various spoken
word scenes and encouraging  friendly competition. Each poet gets 3 minutes