Twice Nightly - History of Leeds theatres and cinemas celebrated on stage

Twice Nightly is being staged at the City Varieties Music Hall on Saturday, November 9, at 7pm

It sees two women, Gladys and Ethel, narrate the stories of a bygone Leeds using the theatres and cinemas that once graced many of the city’s streets.

“Today they are department stores, office blocks and car parks but to the citizens of yesteryear Leeds they were places of dreams.”

Dialogue is mixed with music to tell the tales of the late great houses of entertainment and the people that graced their screens and stages.

“Magnificently built theatres and music halls were on almost every street corner – Leeds has a great history of entertainment and I want to share those stories with audiences young and old; I’m delighted to be able to do so at such a historic venue,” says Liz.

In the second act the production stays in the past but moves further east to Scarborough. Three Ships Came Sailing is a moving new work by Liz and was first performed at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in August this year.

It tells the story of the Scarborough bombardment, the first attack on civilian soil in the early months of World War One.

“Scarborough is a place close to my heart,” says Liz. “I have worked on its newspapers and grew up with my Grandmother telling me about the raid in December 1914. It resulted in 17 deaths and hundreds of casualties which had a huge effect on the sleepy seaside town and indeed on the country as a whole.”

Three Ships Came Sailing will tell the real stories of the people who lived through the raid.