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Urban Folk Quartet, National Centre for Early Music, York, Monday, 7.30pm

ROOTED in Celtic tune forms and traditional song, Urban Folk Quartet also integrate Afrobeat, Indian classical, funk and rock music in their multi-instrumental, high-energy contemporary take on folk.

In the line-up are Joe Broughton, on fiddle, guitar and mandolin; Paloma Trigás, fiddle and vocals; Tom Chapman, cajón, percussion and vocals, and Dan Walsh, banjo, guitar and vocals.

Spooky play of the week

Lyric Hammersmith Theatre presents Ghost Stories, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday

COURTESY of writer-directors Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson, something dark is lurking in the theatre, where deepest fears and disturbing thoughts are imagined live on stage.

Ghost Stories is a twisted love-letter to horror, playing a game with fear as lecturer Professor Goodman strives to prove the supernatural is “purely a trick of the mind” in the face of three stories that beg to differ.

Pop celebration of the week

The Boys Are Back!, featuring 5ive, A1, Damage and 911, York Barbican, Tuesday, 7.45pm

FOUR acts, on one unforgettable night, promise a hit-packed show of pop hits from revitalised late-Nineties’ boy bands 5ive, A1, Damage and 911.

Jazz night of the week

Jamie Cullum, The Taller Tour 2020, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7pm

JAZZ pianist and BBC Radio 2 presenter Jamie Cullum takes his eighth studio album, last June’s Taller, on the road.

“It’s going to be so much fun playing this new music out on tour with my incredible band,” says Cullum. “We’re going to draw on these new songs and reinvent plenty of old ones too. The Taller 2020 tour will be a memorable one.”

Feminist gig of the week

Jessica Fostekew, Hench, The Basement, City Screen, York, Wednesday, doors, 7.30pm

THE Burning Duck Comedy Club presents The Guilty Feminist host Jessica Fostekew as she explores her “big strong strength”.

Have you ever watched a feminist try to take “hench” as a compliment? “It’s like watching a snake eat, but funny,” says Jess, from the BBC sitcoms Motherland and Cuckoo.

Play with the big question of the week

Out Of Character in Less Than Human, York Theatre Royal Studio, Thursday to Saturday, 7.45pm

OUT Of Character, a York company of artists and performers comprising people who use or have used mental health services, asks what does it mean to be truly human in a world of diminishing resources?

When humanity is forced to wrestle with the true cost of survival, are some lives worth more than others? Who decides who lives and dies as evolving technologies offer new forms of “human being?

York premiere of the week

Pick Me Up Theatre in Tom’s Midnight Garden, Theatre @41 Monkgate, York, Friday to March 21

YOUNG Tom Long is forced to stay with his kindly Aunt and Uncle while his brother recovers from a bout of the measles in David Wood’s stage adaptation of Philippa Pearce’s 1950s’ story, directed by Pick Me Up Theatre artistic director Robert Readman.

At their flat, Tom is disappointed to find there is no garden to play in, but his disappointment turns to wonder when he discovers a magical garden that only appears at night when an old grandfather clock strikes thirteen. What’s more, the people he meets cannot see him, except one young girl named Hattie.

Solo gig of the week

An Evening With Romeo Stodart, The Basement, City Screen, York, Friday, doors 8pm

ROMEO Stodart, lead singer and principal songwriter for The Magic Numbers, says: “I’ve decided to do a few solo shows mainly because I’ve never done them before, so it’ll be a very different and new experience for me.

“I’ve got so many pieces of music that haven’t yet found a home, and I think it’d be a great opportunity to play them and bring them to life in front of people.”

Choir concert of the week

Yorkshire Bach Choir, Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine, St Michael le Belfrey, York, Saturday, 7pm

YORKSHIRE Bach Choir are joined by Yorkshire Baroque Soloists and His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts to perform Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers in their most festive form with orchestral and wind assistance.

Monteverdi’s score brings vibrant rhythms and imaginative originality, from the splendour of its grand choruses to the beauty of its solo movements.

The numbers add up in spoken-word show of the week

Say Owt presents: Harry Baker: I Am 10,000, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

HARRY Baker, mathematician-turned-world-slam-champion, marks turning 10,000 days old by celebrating numbers, words and life itself.

Winner of his school’s Battle of the Bands competition with a Jay-Z maths homage, Baker now gives prime number poetry TED talks. He may have 99 problems, apparently, but Maths isn’t one of them.