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Dateline: 30th January, 2005
Theakstons Sponsor Thackray Musical T & R Theakston, the Masham-based brewer, is to sponsor a new musical stage show celebrating the life and work of the late Jake Thackray, the internationally acclaimed Swaledale-based singer/songwriter.
The production, Sister Josephine Kicks the Habit, will bring to life many of the eccentric characters created by Thakeray in his thirty-year career during which he was once dubbed “The Yorkshire Noel Coward.”
Theakston’s director, Simon Theakston, said the decision to sponsor the production was both in recognition of Jake Thackray’s major contribution to modern culture and music and a commemoration of his close connections with the area of North Yorkshire close to Theakston’s family-owned brewery at Masham.
He said, “We are delighted to be sponsoring this new show. As a company we have always had a strong association with live music and given that Jake Thackray spent so much of his life living in our part of the world writing songs about dales people, towns and villages it seemed a natural fit. He was a hugely talented craftsman and artist and we are very proud to be associated with this celebration of his life and work."
At the time of his death on Christmas Eve 2002 Jake was working on a musical incorporating his characters and songs. The work has been completed by Yorkshire poet and writer Ian McMillan, who has set it in a North Yorkshire village community and written the narrative in rhyme.
The musical, which is also supported by the Arts Council, is directed by Yorkshire actor/director, Fine Time Fontayne and will have its world premiere at the Helmsley Arts Centre on 24 May 2005. Executive producer, Ian Watson, of TAMAR Scarborough, said, “Jake was universally regarded as one of the foremost UK singer-songwriters of the late 20th century. In eighty or so songs he created a community of eccentrics, both comic and tragic, and these will be brought to life by cast of six actor/musicians in a celebration of Jake’s work.” Prior to a national tour in the autumn Sister Josephine Kicks the Habit will be presented at Helmsley Arts Centre on 24-28 May; at the Swaledale Festival (30 May-2 June); Selby Arts Centre (4 June); Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield (6-8 June); and at Leeds City Varieties (10 & 11 June). Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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