Ah, nostalgia. Hard to believe now but there was a time when Manchester had only two theatres—The Opera House and The Palace—to host visiting productions. As they catered mainly for musicals, anyone preferring drama or comedy had to travel, so I spent a fair bit of time in Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford.
It was enlightening. I formed the impression, contrary to that given by Alan Bennett, the population of Leeds is sex-mad. After all, visitors entering the town are greeted by a neon sign for a local firm named ‘Totty’ and one recalls a notice on the door to a sex shop in the city centre instructing patrons to enter at the rear.
Of the various cities, Bradford offered the chance to transform a theatre visit into a full day out. If you’ve watched the movie version of The Dresser, then you’ve seen inside the delightful Alhambra Theatre where scenes were filmed. The city also offers the National Science and Media Museum, which, at the time of my visits, boasted the first IMAX screen in Europe. I tell you, that was a big deal back in the day.
More significantly, Bradford is the location for magnificent curry houses like Kashmir and Mumtaz Restaurants. A relative living in East Anglia recently married someone claiming the best curry could be found only in London. My, how I laughed.
My return to Bradford is by invitation to celebrate the town’s designation as UK City of Culture for 2025. This is a competition run by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), inviting places across the UK to set out their vision for culture-led regeneration and takes place every four years.
‘Culture’ is a surprisingly controversial topic. Those who take a narrow view, perceiving it as referring only to artistic works, tend to reach for a revolver upon mention of the subject. Bradford has, however, one of the most diverse communities in the UK, and over a quarter of the population is under the age of 20. The city, therefore, takes a wider view, perceiving ‘culture’ as covering the social behaviour, institutions and norms of communities, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws and customs of the residents. The programme for The City of Culture will celebrate contemporary culture in all forms and highlight the rich history and heritage of Bradford. Events, performances and activities will spread from the city to the towns, villages and green spaces across the district. Bradford residents will be involved in many of the performances and activities, telling stories about their city and district. Many elements of the programme will be free. Tickets for Rise, the lavish opening event, cost just £2.
Supporters argue City of Culture status attracts new inward investment, increases visitor numbers and participation in arts and cultural activities, creates new jobs and new opportunities for skills development for young people and helps transform the reputation of participating cities. A report by Hull University in March 2018 found Hull's status as the UK City of Culture attracted more than five million people, £220 million of investment and 800 new jobs. It is estimated by 2030, Bradford’s City of Culture status will generate a return of £26 for every £1 invested. As such, the programme for Bradford falls into the argument regularly voiced by the British Theatre Guide that cultural activities have a wider impact than upon the arts, offering also economic benefits as theatregoers also patronise restaurants, hotels and shops.
Things have, however, changed since I last visited Bradford. The North West no longer has a functioning rail service. Manchester Victoria, from where I travel, has rightly been acknowledged as the worst of Britain's busiest railway stations for cancellations in 2024—a richly deserved accolade train companies using the station have worked hard to achieve. However, I am assured the drayhorse pulling the train carriages will get me to Bradford by Friday if I set off on Monday and agree to get out and give an occasional push.
There is no dress code for the press launch, but I err on the side of caution and dress suited and booted. However, the main event is in the open air, at night and temperatures are forecast to be below zero, so also wear a vest, cardigan, topcoat, hat, gloves and two pairs of socks. Dead glamorous reviewing for the BTG.
The full programme for the Year of Culture is available online, but readers of the BTG might be most interested in the theatrical aspects of the Year of Culture. It should be appreciated, however, the emphasis is on new works. The city boasts a statue of J B Priestley, Bradford born and bred, but the current touring production of his masterpiece An Inspector Calls is not part of the programme, despite playing The Alhambra Theatre in April / May.
There is The Dreams I Had, staged readings of selections from the plays of Andrea Dunbar. Mike Kenny’s adaptation of E Nesbit’s The Railway Children is to be staged on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway line.
The Brontë sisters are the inspiration for Wild Uplands, four new contemporary visual artworks created by national and international artists placed across Penistone Hill Country Park, and for a new collection of stories and animations by fantasy writers and illustrators from Ghana and the north of England revisiting Brontës’ imaginary world of Angria.
Opera North provides an immersive sound walk featuring new music from three leading composers inspired by the music of Bradford-born composer Delius. The Orchestra of Opera North joins forces with bassline musicians, singers and DJs for Bassline Symphony and holds singing and performance workshops in schools all year round. The company’s first ever performances of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra is scheduled for April.
Common Wealth has devised the immersive Right/s performed by a cast of 20 young people from Bradford, exploring the criminalisation of young people across society—and how an awareness of one’s rights can give the power to shape the future.
So far so good… created by choreographer TC Howard with the artists and participants at of Dance On Bradford—dance groups of Bradford residents aged 55 and over—is a playful look at ageing staged at various locations throughout the festival. Sing, Dance, Leap is a major 4-year schools programme led by the Royal Ballet and Opera with Northern Ballet and Opera North, culminating in a mass performance of opera, ballet, song and dance celebrating the hopes and creativity of the cities young people—with pupils and students performing alongside artists from the three companies.
The programme is launched in the modest setting of The Impressions Gallery, which hosts Nationhood: Memory and Hope, a collection of new photographic images by Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh celebrating the diversity of the UK in 2025. As the subjects in the photographs, black women with faces painted white or blue, are always dressed in robes of bright primary colours, there is a continuity and sense of travel between the images, the same people appearing in different locations.
The photographs are surreal in nature, which always prompts me to look for humour; "The Weight of Paradise" features the subjects overlooked by a pondering statue which has been fouled by birds. The placing of the subjects against a natural background has a striking impact; "The Edge of Tomorrow’s Memory" has them against a stone arch in a mossy field looking in different directions seeking knowledge. "A Point of View" has a thunderous sky and harsh scrubland, but the position of the subjects is almost whimsical—Rapunzel-like, their scarlet robes hang down the towers upon which they are placed.
The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television has just reopened after refurbishment and now greets visitors with a model of Aardman’s The Wrong Trousers walking down a wall powered by Feathers McGraw. I don’t know if its art but I like it.
The Museum hosts David Hockney: Pieced Together. Hockney, a restless artist, makes many contributions to The Year of Culture. Pieced Together comprises two works showing his interest in ‘joiners’—collages of multiple photographs or filmed images joined together regardless of whether they are an exact fit. The approach works on the principle a single photograph is an image ‘frozen’ in time, whereas a series of them joined together, which may, for example, feature one subject in different poses as they move—carries a sense of time passing and events unfolding.
There are two such collages in the Museum. One is static, ironically a series of photographs taken of the Museum when it opened in 1985. The second comprises four films taken in Woldgate Wood using 36 digital cameras attached to a car driving through the woods in each of the four seasons. Hard to appreciate much difference between summer and spring, but the heaps of fallen red leaves in autumn and the stark white snowbound woods of winter are striking images.
Hockney has also inspired, and supports, DRAW!, a nationwide drawing project for the Year of Culture inviting people of all ages across the UK to take part in a drawing project to reflect their everyday lives. His works are also on display in the 1853 Gallery at Salts Mill giving some idea of his vast range running from cartoons to large-scale abstract pieces transmitted by fax.
Salts Mill is a fascinating venue, a Grade II-listed building and former textile mill. Its most memorable characteristic is the sheer size of the rooms. To get an idea of the scale of the rooms, we hike up a heart-attack-inducing flight of stairs to view a massive, empty room. We are advised as we gasp for breath there is a lift available. Now they tell us. The vast three top floors of the Mill are to host a single artwork as part of the City of Culture—Ann Hamilton’s We Will Sing inspired by Bradford’s textile heritage. If you plan to visit Hamilton’s installation, take the lift.
The Mill is like a maze—take a wrong turn and you may end up in a sprawling bookshop or a clothing store. Salts Mill is home to the unique Peace Museum, supported by the City of Culture and exploring the history of peace, peacemakers, social reform and peace movements. With the option to make your own peace badge and pick the sound that reminds you of peace, the Museum would seem an ideal schools’ attraction.
The main attraction for the first day of the City of Culture is Rise, an open-air spectacular inspired by the people and places of Bradford, created by award-winning director Kirsty Housley with Bradford-born magician Steven Frayne (formerly known as Dynamo) and written by Sameena Hussain, Kemmi Gill and Kenzo Jae with music by Ben Crick. It is an odd show, opening in an eye-catching manner but concluding with a bit of a visual anticlimax.
Two scaffold towers form vertical stages—boxes stacked on top of each other—in Centenary Park and Square. In a nice touch, the Airedale Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Crick, are visible in the windows of an office block behind the arena. As a kind of support act prior to the entrance of Steven Frayne, a collection of spoken-word, rap, acrobatic and aerial artists along with Bradford’s Friendship Choir, on the steps of the magistrates’ courts, open the show.
True to the title of the show and spirit of community involvement, the first performer rises out of the audience. A fine opening, but it highlights the sound is not always audible—Frayne asks for his microphone to be turned up—leaving the audience occasionally dependent upon screened surtitles, which blunts the impact of the rap and spoken word artists.
The screened images are a stunning success, creating, among other things, the outside of an ordinary suburban house. As the lighting changes, it becomes possible to see into the rooms and explore the range of extraordinary activities undertaken by the apparently mundane inhabitants with dancers and acrobats bursting into life.
The short magic act performed by Steven Frayne is old-school rather than flashy. It is obviously a very personal experience for Frayne, who recalls his early years performing street magic in the area which became Centenary Park and displays photographs of his family. A vague, autobiographical storyline, based around Frayne’s childhood discovery of the joy of performing illusions and with Dorian, a young actor, as the fledgling magician, does not, however, last beyond two scenes.
Instead of relying on special effects, Frayne puts a new spin on established illusions. The tried and tested trick of guessing the name someone has pulled out of a hat has Frayne initially displaying a nonsensical word which, with a gesture, then correctly spells out the name. Even more impressively, Frayne points out the barcode on the wristbands given to audience members upon entry also spell the name.
The only visual aspect of the magic set is Frayne causing his handprints to appear on a wall plaque well away from the stage. Frayne’s act is perhaps best taken as a tribute to his birth town, a bit subtle to satisfy a large audience in the open air but a powerful personal statement of commitment from someone who refuses to cease using his Yorkshire accent.
The 2025 City of Culture is so wide-ranging as to contain events for all tastes. Anyway, the initiative deserves support, being a rare example of central government promoting, rather than voicing knee-jerk criticism of, the arts.