Beach Hut Theatre

07/06/2026

Less than two weeks left to get your tickets!

John Pattison and Josephine Rowe will be playing songs from their new album ‘Still Life’ alongside a host of other fantastic numbers. Don’t miss this treat. Come and hear two talented people make some amazing musical sounds in the Gallery at Woodend in Scarborough on Friday 19th June at 7.00pm. There will be a bar with your favourite tipples available throughout the evening!

‘Still Life’ - Songs by John Pattison is part of Scarborough Fringe Festival 2026.
Tickets cost £10 and are available at:
https://scarboroughfair.uk/events/still-life-songs-by-john-pattison
Tickets will be available on the door but only cash payments will be accepted.

Doors Open: 6.30pm - Performance: 7.00pm - 9.00pm

04/04/2026

John Pattison is going to be performing some songs from his new album ‘Still Life’ with singer Josephine Rowe at the first GALLERY 6 NIGHT of 2026. The evening will feature local poets Danny Tyler, Anne Pilgrim-Green and performer-poet Lizzie Lovejoy.

A few tickets (£7.50 including a drink) are still available.
Contact either [email protected] (07926-382562) or Leslie Stones at Gallery 6 itself, corner of Victoria road and Aberdeen walk.
6pm to 8.30pm on FRIDAY 24th APRIL. Doors open 5.30pm.

31/10/2024

Welcome to the end of our musical journey. We are now officially entering the dark half of the year, but tonight we can pause and look back on the past. According to the ancient Celts we should also drink ourselves silly for three days straight! I won’t be doing that but, I have decided to make my last piece about laying some old ghosts to rest. Whilst searching through our dusty attic for tapes and scores, I found a score that I had never recorded. Theatre and TV director Derrick Goodwin wrote an adaptation of Emile Zola’s ‘Therese Raquin’. He renamed it ‘Abiding Passions’ and changed the murder scene where Camille gets thrown out of a rowing boat and drowned to make it easier to stage. In this adaptation, the adulterous lovers, Laurent and Therese push Camille down the stairs at Madame Raquin’s house in Paris. This score was written to be played live, first of all by myself at Scarborough and then by Simon Cryer at Watford Palace Theatre. I have recorded the main theme here and used suitable images of Paris to illustrate the mood of the story. I have decided that rather than creating something completely new, I would rearrange the Parisian street music that I wrote for the play in 1990. Two years after writing this music, I found myself in Paris composing two film scores for Alain Resnais. It was a very stressful time putting together full orchestral scores for over five hours of film. In retrospect, I realise that although I was working in an incredibly beautiful city, I never really allowed myself to appreciate the wonders around me and to enjoy the experiences I was having. To rectify this, the second half of this film celebrates my own personal ‘Phantoms of Paris’ good and bad. Thus, ends our travels through the dark recesses of my musical mind on a peaceful and positive note. I am sure the Celts would have approved, except there would be more beer and sword play. Happy Halloween!

Theme from 'Abiding Passions' by Derrick Goodwin (Emile Zola)Music Copyright John Pattison 1990

30/10/2024

For my penultimate piece of music, I am posting the playout form ‘Life and Beth’, the third and final play in the ‘Things that go Bump’ series of ghost plays by Alan Ayckbourn. Recently widowed Beth, cannot cope without her husband Gordon, or that’s what everyone else wants her to believe, including the ghost of Gordon himself. She is more concerned about her missing cat, Wagstaff, who disappeared on the day of Gordon’s funeral. During the play Beth builds up her confidence and eventually she confronts Gordons ghostly form and his spirit vanishes in a puff of smoke. At the end of the play the cat returns, but not in corporeal form. Wagstaff is now a ghost too and as the lights go dim we see the blankets of his basket press down and we hear a contented miaow. In my original overture for the play I featured the sound of Wagstaff in the score. Ayckbourn didn’t approve and asked me to remove it. I was always a bit miffed. This little film is my tribute to Wagstaff and is the story of him finding his way home. I have reintroduced as much miaowing as I reasonably could and I am delighted that he finally has the recognition that he deserves! Tomorrow is the big day and the final musical episode of our spooky Samhain journey together.

Theme From 'Life and Beth' by Alan AyckbournReimagined as 'Wagstaff's Journey Home' by John PattisonMusic copyright John Pattison 2008

28/10/2024

‘Stalked by Flowers’ is play about dark forces that lurk among us. They may not be supernatural in origin but they are nonetheless powerful and destructive. The play highlights various different types of addiction, namely: chocolate, ci******es, computer games, alcohol and drugs. Some may seem less harmful than others but, they all can all end up controlling our lives. This 2010 play by Allie Watt is set in a seaside flower shop. There are regular flower deliveries from the continent and a charming but deadly dangerous criminal beguiles the three women that run the shop into unwittingly transporting large amounts of Class A drugs in amongst the Tulips. The play is essentially a thriller, but also it shows us that there are some truly nasty characters out there who will stop at nothing to achieve their nefarious ends. This music is the main theme from the Premiere production in Scarborough.

Theme from 'Stalked by Flowers' by Allie WattMusic copyright John Pattison 2010

27/10/2024

This music is a song from the 2019 musical ‘The Curse of The Smuggler’s Run’ written by John Pattison and Allie Watt. Set in 1822 when smuggling was a way of life, revenue man George ‘Flogger’ Ballard arrives in Scarborough to put a stop to it. The locals find their world of ‘free trading’ suddenly under threat of the noose or transportation to the Colonies. The legend of a hoard of buried gold draws the villainous Valentine back to town. His dark and violent past finally catches up with him when he is confronted by the ghosts of his victims on top of the cliff at White Nab. The vengeful spirits drive Valentine over the edge and he falls to his death on the rocks below

'The Song of the Murdered Souls' from 'The Smuggler's Run' by John Pattison and Allie Watt. Music Copyright John Pattison 2019

26/10/2024

‘Snake in the Grass’ is the second in the ‘Things that go Bump’ series of ghost plays by Alan Ayckbourn. This one is from 2002. Once again, the playwright blurs the lines between supernatural and psychological events. Two sisters return to the garden of their run-down family home and their now overgrown tennis court. The story begins in sunlight and becomes much more ominous as darkness descends and memories of their abusive father return. The score for this play involved multi sampling an on-set garden wind chime, hanging from a pergola, at different velocities. When the wind chime moved it began playing a lullaby, composed using it’s five simple notes. This signified that strange things were about to happen. The score also featured an almost inaudible surround sound recording of an Aeolian Harp, which created a beautiful but, disturbing drone in Eb behind the audience. It grew louder around them as things intensified onstage adding to the general sense of discomfort.

Theme from 'Snake in the Grass' by Alan Ayckbourn. Music Copyright John Pattison 2002

25/10/2024

Allie Watt and I had been preparing for this fantasy musical for about ten years. Following lots of research, trips out to the Yorkshire Wolds, visits to Harpham and the beautiful Elizabethan house, Burton Agnes Hall, ‘Summer’s Edge’ was born. It is set on an ancient farm high up on the Wolds and it is a tale about ghosts, the Fae and a magical Carcanet with that channels and controls the power of the land. This song performed by Josephine Rowe, tells the story of Rosamund, a 16th Century ghost who was brutally murdered by the villain of the piece, the evil Coachman. The World Premiere production of Summer's Edge' opened exactly eight years ago tonight.

'The Folly of Maids' from 'Summer's Edge' by John Pattison and Allie Watt. Music Copyright John Pattison 2016

24/10/2024

‘Haunting Julia’ is the first of ‘Things That Go Bump’ series of ghost plays by Alan Ayckbourn. First performed in 1994, this is the story of Julia Lukin, a fictitious gifted nineteen-year-old who committed su***de twelve years earlier. She haunts the three men closest to her both through the supernatural and in their memories. It was originally presented with no interval in order to build the tension for the audience. This track is composed in the imagined contemporary style of Julia Lukin and was played at the end of the play much like the end credits of a movie.

Theme from 'Haunting Julia' by Alan Ayckbourn. Music Copyright John Pattison 1994

23/10/2024

In 2017 Beach Hut Theatre presented a series of full length plays called ‘Midsummer Magical Realism’. This piece of music is from the play ‘Canal’ by Allie Watt. The play centres on the character Chris. He is fifteen years old, lives on a housing estate and sees angels. The play charts the development of his emotional dependency on his brother, Danny, and his sexual relationship with Ruth, a woman in her thirties. Chris and Ruth’s love affair gives Chris the courage to finally confront the dark secrets within his own family, particularly regarding his father. But this, in turn leads to a final tragic revelation and conclusion.

Theme from 'Canal' by Allie Watt. Music Copyright John Pattison 2017