Live entertainment that’s up close and personal
Just off Coney Street, York’s busiest shopping thoroughfare, and past what remains of St Martin, the church largely destroyed by a Luftwaffe bombing raid in 1942, is City Screen.
An effortlessly cool riverside hangout, City Screen is part of the Picturehouse group of indie cinemas. In addition to showing a huge variety of movies, it broadcasts live screenings of theatre and opera from the London stage. Directors regularly come along to introduce their work and answer questions afterwards. With a bar serving tasty grub, over which you can watch earnest students arguing the relative merits of Fellini or Bergman, City Screen is one of York’s places to see and be seen.
Info
Address 13-17 Coney St, York YO1 9QL, +44 (0)1904 612940, www.thebasementyork.co.uk, cityscreenyork.basement@picturehouses.co.uk | Public Transport Closest bus stop: Exhibition Square | Hours Wed & Sat 10:30am–11pm, all other days 11am–11pm| Tip The Revolution bar next door, known universally as Revs in York, offers 50 percent off all food every Monday.
But for live entertainment you have to go downstairs. There are bigger and more established music and comedy venues in York than the Basement. Fibbers was the trailblazer, and brought some of the biggest names in music to York – Coldplay, Kasabian, and Killers to name but an alliterative three. It has since moved from its Stonebow home into bigger and shinier digs on Toft Green. The Duchess, formed very much in Fibbers’ image, plays on in the concrete Stonebow bunker. If you’re looking for a certain kind of intimacy at a gig, however, you can’t go wrong with the Basement. Its unique subterranean setting – you can hear the waters of the Ouse lapping against the stonework – and small size make for a buzzy, convivial atmosphere.
No two nights are the same. You might catch an acoustic set from young up-and-coming songwriters or brand-new 15-minute plays being read by local actors. Verbal sparks fly at every Say Owt Poetry Slam, while fresh stand-up talent is showcased at the Wozzon Comedy Club. Meet new scientific thinking at the Café Scientifique, or burlesque starlets and fetish models when Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School opens for lessons. Life begins downstairs …
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