DIARY
Guide to THE BEST events in May
CONCERT
Bryan Adams
The Groover from Vancouver is waking up the neighbours again with his raucous brand of rock. This is a stop on a vast world tour for Adams, who’ll be playing tracks from his last album, So Happy It Hurts, plus his biggest hits. He’s back in Yorkshire in June, playing Dalby Forest and The Piece Hall, Halifax.
May 18, Sheffield Arena, utilitaarenasheffield.co.uk
FESTIVAL
Todmorden Folk Festival
This fun folk festival packs a lot into its programme. This year get ready for concerts featuring Lady Maisery, Bonfire Radicals, Dan Walsh, Jacob & Drinkwater, She Shanties, Kinaara and Hot Club of Halifax. And that’s just for starters. There are also children’s activities and craft stalls — plus a ceilidh (because of course there is). May 3–5, various venues, todfolkfest.co.uk
MUSICAL
Grease
A big slice of 1950s Americana, served up with singing, dancing, big quiffs, cool cars and Pink Ladies. You know all the songs back to front by now —including Greased Lightning, Summer Nights, Sandy, Hopelessly Devoted to You and You’re the One That I Want — while the plot sees Danny, a needlessly macho, swivel-hipped teen from Rydell High falling for the prim and proper Sandy. Yes it’s corny, but it’s also rather irresistible. Directed by Nikolai Foster, artistic director at Leicester’s Curve theatre.
May 7–11, Hull New Theatre, hulltheatres.co.uk
THEATRE
Tess
Thomas Hardy’s weighty classic is brought to the stage by boundary-pushing theatre group Ockham’s Razor, with 1870s Wessex evoked via ‘acrobatics, aerial, physical theatre, spoken word and an inventive, evocative set’. The production has been roundly acclaimed with The Stage calling it ‘ingenious — an inspired adaptation’. Just the thing for A Levels students, too... May 8–11, York Theatre Royal, yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
THEATRE
DNA
This jet-black comedy from Dennis Kelly — the writer of Channel 4’s Utopia and the BBC’s Pulling and Spooks — is the inaugural production from the SJT’s Young Company, a new talent development prog ramme for young creatives in Scarborough. The play is about a group of teenage bullies who cover up an unplanned death, and discover that deception brings them closer together.
May 8–11, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, sjt.uk.com
THEATRE
Twelve Angry Men
A classic drama — first written for TV and then adapted into a movie starring Henry Fonda — which takes place in the jury room of a New York court. Eleven jury members decide that a delinquent on trial for murder is definitely guilty and get ready to deliver a unanimous verdict that will send him to the electric chair. But the 12th jury member harbours reasonable doubts and refus
