Dash to SLAP, York’s alt arts festival, relive Dylan’s Isle of Wight Festival comeback, join the York Printmakers and ask Parky a question in a week as diverse as ever. CHARLES HUTCHINSON picks the week's highlights

Festival of the Week

SLAP Festival, York Theatre Royal and elsewhere, February 20 to 23

RUN by 70/30 Split theatre company’s Lydia Cottrell and Sophie Unwin, SLAP is York’s pay-what-you-can contemporary performance festival, with an anagram name that stands for Social Live Art Performance.

Flaunting a bold assortment of dance, theatre, live art and cabaret performances by York, national and international artists, SLAP will take place in five locations across the city, journeying through themes of queerness, zombies, Millennials and their predecessors, masculinity, connection and more besides.

“We tend to put unusual work into usual spaces for unsuspecting audiences,”says Lydia.

York Press:

Bang on! The Yamato Drummers of Japan

Get it on, bang a gong, get it on....

The Yamato Drummers, Grand Opera House, York, February 18

THE Yamato Drummers of Japan are athletes as much as musicians. These ultra-energetic Far Eastern drummers begin each day with a 10km run, train for 12 hours playing drums that weigh 500kg and lose 2kg every show, a weight loss to match a boxer after a bout.

The British premiere of Jhonetsu (Passion) is their most ambitious show yet, wherein the Taiko drummers challenge their limits musically and physically.

York Press:

About time two: Wizz Jones and Ralph Mctell at Selby Town Hall

Never too late to strike up a partnership award of the week

Ralph McTell & Wizz Jones, Selby Town Hall, February 19

SUMMER 2016 brought Ralph McTell and Wizz Jones’s first recording together after a 50- year musical friendship, aptly entitled About Time. They so enjoyed belatedly playing in union, they rushed back to the studio to make About Time Too, released in November 2017.

Now McTell, 74, and Jones, 79, whizz up to Selby...and about time too.

York Press: An Evening with Sir Michael Parkinson

Interviewer turns interviewee: Sir Michael Parkinson open to questions

Yorkshire chat show of the week

An Evening With Sir Michael Parkinson, Grand Opera House, York, February 19

INTERVIEWER turns interviewee as Parky is quizzed by his son, Mike, about a career that has taken in one-on-one chats with more than 2,000 of the most important cultural and political figures of the 20th and 21st centuries. Barnsley’s reet grand inquisitor promises an “intimate, entertaining and informative look” at his remarkable journey from a Yorkshire pit village to being the king of Saturday night TV.

York Press:

Unabashed Canadia: Sarah Jane Scouten

Canadian gig of the week in York

Sarah Jane Scouten, The Crescent, York, February 19

ECLECTIC promoters Please Please You link up with Green Chilli Roots to welcome Canadian traditionalist Sarah Jane Scouten back to York.

Flavours of Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith and Iris Dement can be detected in her outspoken, edgy songs that tackle such themes as poverty, midwifery, heartache and unabashed Canadia, whatever that might be.

Jorvik event of the week

Descended From Odin: The Jorvik Takeover, York Barbican, February 21

DANISH artist Myrkur headlines this Jorvik Viking Festival evening with her Folkesange show, featuring Norse inspired folk music and storytelling.

In addition, Skald Sean contributes tales of Norse sagas and stories, inspired by northern nature and culture.

Dylan anniversary of the week

The Bob Dylan Story, Grand Opera House, York, February 20

BILL Lennon presents a a specially-written homage to Dylan’s comeback show after his motorcycle crash in The Bob Dylan Story’s Isle of Wight 50th Anniversary Greatest Hits Show. The self-confessed Dylan fanatic re-creates Bob and The Band’s show on that heady late-summer festival evening in 1969, with the aid of projections and stories about the songs.

York Press:

Reality checked: In Other Words at York Theatre Royal Studio

Dealing with dementia show of the week

Off The Middle Theatre Company in In Other Words, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 19 and 20

CONNECTED by Frank Sinatra’s songs, Matthew Seager’s intimate, humorous, moving love story explores the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and the transformative power of music in our lives. This two-hander journeys through 50 years of Arthur and Jane’s relationship, jumping in and out of memories and experiencing, for brief moments, a failing mind as it loses its grip on reality.

York Press:

Collabro: musical theatre highlights

Britain’s Got Talent musical theatre quartet of the week

Collabro, Grand Opera House, York, February 21

COLLABRO met for their first rehearsal above a pub in 2014 and soon were winning Britain’s Got Talent, signing to Simon Cowell’s Syco label. Now they play York on their Road To The Royal Albert Hall Tour en route to... the Royal Albert Hall.

York Press:

Leaf Series, by Jane Duke, at York Printmakers exhibition

Exhibition launch of the week

York Printmakers, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, February 18, 6pm

FOUNDED in 2015, York Printmakers are a diverse group with a shared passion for print. Members use traditional techniques, such as lino and wood cuts, collagraphs, screen printing and etching, producing original limited editions in styles varying from illustrative to abstract. On show until March 17.