Two American writers, York and Scarborough playwrights, a Californian singer, a cutting-edge York band, marine films and blossoming ballet talents are in CHARLES HUTCHINSON’S diary

American play of the week

A View From The Bridge, York Theatre Royal, until October 12

ASSOCIATE director Juliet Forster directs this York Theatre Royal and Royal and Derngate Northampton co-production of Arthur Miller’s resonant play about masculinity, community and antagonism towards economic immigration

In 1950s’ Brooklyn, respected Italian-American longshoreman Eddie Carbone lives a life of seeming stability with his wife and niece in a tight knit, immigrant community bound by moral codes of justice and honour. The surprise arrival of his wife’s Sicilian cousins unravels all that they have built together as the young men search out work, wealth and love.

Sir Ian McKellen urges you to see this show…

An Evening With Armistead Maupin, Grand Opera House, York, Monday, 7.30pm

AMERICAN author, storyteller and LGBT activist Armistead Maupin is on his first British tour at the age of 75, relating tales from four decades and offering observations on society and the world we inhabit..

Born in Washington DC, he is best known for Tales Of The City, his series of novels set in San Francisco, first published as a column in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s.

Anniversary concert of the week

Belinda Carlisle, Runaway Horses 30th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, Tuesday, doors 7pm

CALIFORNIAN singer, musician and author Belinda Carlisle made her name as the lead singer of The Go-Go’s, the all-female band formed in Los Angeles in 1978.

Now 61 and living in Bangkok, Thailand, with husband Morgan Mason, she has enjoyed solo success with Heaven ls A Place On Earth, Leave A Light On, Circle In The Sand and Runaway Horses. Here she marks the 30th anniversary of her most successful album.

Tribute show of the week

Halfway To Paradise: The Billy Fury Story, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday, 7.30pm

THIS tribute to Liverpool singer Billy Fury is in its 21st year, featuring his band Fury’s Tornados, backing singer Colin Gold as they revive such hits as Last Night Was Made For Love, I Will, Jealousy, Halfway To Paradise and Wondrous Place.

The show features a nostalgic backdrop to Fury’s era and film footage of Billy himself.

Children’s play of the week

The Boy Who Cried Wolf, York Theatre Royal, Studio, Thursday to October 12

ADAPTED from Aesop’s fable by York playwright Mike Kenny for Leeds children’s theatre company Tutti Frutti and York Theatre Royal, this beautiful, warming wintery tale brings together a bother of a boy, a mithered mother and a grand old brass band of a granddad.

Performed by Wendy Harris’s actor-musicians, the show is set in a village of knitters with fingers flicking and needles clicking, where every new Christmas jumper tells a story, replete with humorous sheep and a scary wolf or two.

Film event of the week

BANFF Ocean Film Festival 2019, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

THE Ocean Film Festival World Tour returns with a carefully curated new selection of the world’s most captivating marine short films, filmed above and below the water’s surface.

Celebrate the divers, surfers, swimmers and oceanographers who live for the sea’s salt spray, who chase the crests of waves and who marvel at the mysteries of the big blue. Be awed by mesmerising ocean life and spectacular cinematography from unexplored depths of our planet.

Musical lunch of the week

York Unitarians’ Last Fridays Lunchtime Concert, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, Friday, 12.30pm

YORK Unitarians’ lunchtime concert welcomes two young professional musicians who have moved to York: violinist Paul Milhau and pianist Eleanor Kornas, performing Mozart, Beethoven and Kreisier works

Milhau began his musical education in Toulouse, before studying at the Royal College of Music, and is now a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician and teacher. Kornas attendedCambridge University as Trinity College’s first female organ scholar.She is head of keyboard studies at Queen Margaret’s School, Escrick.

Dance show of the week

English Youth Ballet’s Swan Lake, Grand Opera House, York, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm

ENGLISH Youth Ballet performs a full-length production of a classical ballet with professional principal dancers in the leading roles, giving young dancers outside London a chance to dance within a professional setting.

An evening of child’s play

Alan Ayckbourn’s 80 Years Young, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Sunday, 6pm

ALAN Ayckbourn hosts a gala evening of extracts from his plays for families and children, read by actors from the SJT’s summer repertory company.

This celebration of the 80th birthday of the SJT’s Director Emeritus features the Season’s Greetings cast, Matt Addis, Eileen Battye, Rachel Caffrey, Bill Champion, Andy Cryer, Michael Lyle, Frances Marshall, Mercy Ojelade and Leigh Symonds, and Jamie Baughan, Jemma Churchill, Russell Dixon and Naomi Petersen, from Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present.

Gig of the week outside York

The Howl And The Human, Leeds Brudenell Social Club, Sunday, 7.30pm

YORK band The Howl And The Hum promote new single Human Contact on their biggest British tour so far, heading from King Tuts in Glasgow to The Scala in London.

Recorded with Slaves and Kendrick Lamar producer Jolyon Thomas, as the four-piece hone their craft in their countryside studio near York, this fast-paced slab of miserable disco touches on mental health and what it means to be alone in a digital age.