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07
Jun 2023
Last Updated: 07/06/2023
Festival show brings 1960s seaside nostalgia to Ripon
Actors who specialise in creating theatre for people living with dementia are staging two special free shows on Friday (June 9), as part of Ripon Theatre Festival.
Smashing Mirrors Theatre Company is teaming up with the charity Dementia Forward to present Mike and Millie Go to the Seaside - a 20-minute performance which takes the audience on a nostalgic day trip back to the 1960s.
Using music, dance, mime and rhyme, the performers will stimulate the audience’s memories and provoke interactions in a show first trialled at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
Performances will be staged at Dementia Forward’s Burton Leonard hub, George Armitage House, at 11am on Friday and repeated at 3pm at Holy Trinity Church in Ripon.
Smashing Mirrors' artistic director, Elizabeth Godber, said:“Theatre and music, can hugely improve wellbeing for those living with dementia, but often, for those living with later stages, and their carers, it is inaccessible. We believe theatregoing is an incredible experience that should be enjoyed by all.”
Earlier on Friday, between 12 noon and 2pm, Holy Trinity Church will also host Bread is Life featuring an interactive production by Storm in the North, designed to highlight the continuing plight of refugees from war-torn Syria.
As well as featuring powerful storytelling the performance, presented in partnership with Ripon City of Sanctuary, will invite the audience to make bread in the Syrian way and share it with friends and neighbours. Tickets to attend cost £10.
The festival begins this evening (Wednesday) at Ripon Arts Hub with Happy Place a dystopian comedy performed by Forget about the Dog, which is being presented in partnership with Ripon YMCA Young Leaders.
The opening night event is part of a packed festival programme running until Sunday, (June 11) and including performances and activities for people of all ages at a wide range of indoor and outdoor venues across Ripon and at Fountains Abbey.
Further details about all festival events can be found by clicking here.
Pictured above are members of the Smashing Mirrors Theatre Company. Picture: Ripon Theatre Festival
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