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12
Jun 2023
Gallery: A weekend of family entertainment at Ripon Theatre Festival
The focus was on family fun in the sun as Ripon Theatre Festival's outdoor performers took centre stage over the weekend.
Yesterday's bright sunshine brought hundreds of children, along with parents and grandparents to Spa Gardens, where they saw puppets, pirates, a Noah's Ark show (pictured below) musicians, singers, dancers and many more entertainers.
Among them was Rhubarb Theatre (see main picture), which provided an interactive experience for the audience combining street entertainment with family games, featuring characters inspired by Lewis Carroll's wonderland creations.
On Saturday, Ripon city centre Market Square, Minster Gardens, The Arcade, North Street and Kirkgate and Westgate, were among the venues for a eclectic mixture of alfresco theatrical performances, while the Flying Dodos and other puppet characters roamed the streets.
The Flying Dodos on North Street
Ripon Arts Hub, the cathedral, Curzon Cinema, the Claro Lounge, Wetherspoon's Unicorn Hotel, the library and The Little Ripon Bookshop and Workhouse Museum, also hosted indoor festival events.
The Strange Twig pirates in Spa Gardens
Ian Gouge
At Curzon Cinema, Ripon-based award-winning author and poet Ian Gouge, gave a premiere performance of his dramatic poem Crash while on Market Square, a large crowd gathered for a whole host of acts, including The Giant Balloon Show (pictured below).
Just a hop and a skip away at the cathedral, Ripon City Morris Dancers attracted a large gathering as did dancers of a different kind when Sarita McDermott and her team of Bollywood-style performers, Bethany, Matthew and Martin, from Jennyruth Workshops, performed in Spa Gardens.
Ripon City Morris Dancers
Sarita McDermott (right) with the Bollywood dancers.
While it was a weekend for enjoyment across the city, the daily hardship of a life in poverty was given a dramatic twist at the Workshouse Museum.
Through interactive displays and presentations, volunteers in period costume told the story of what it was like for some of Ripon's Victorian forebears.
The finale of Ripon's second theatre festival came yesterday evening with Illyria's action-packed production of Robin Hood at Fountains Abbey and as the curtain came down on this year's event, festival director Katie Scott (pictured below) told the Stray Ferret:
Festival director Katie Scott
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