28
Apr
Normandy veterans' stories to feature in Ripon's VE anniversary commemorations
Lister House in Ripon, the Royal British Legion care home for the Armed Forces community, will provide a fitting setting for a powerful VE Day 80th anniversary event next month.
Award winning writer-performer Helena Fox and lyricist Natasha Jones will be in the city on the afternoon of Sunday May 11, when Ripon Theatre Festival and Ripon Community Poppy Project join forces to present Bomb Happy, a double bill that tells, in the words of two Normandy veterans, their experiences of D-Day and beyond.
The event includes a specially commissioned film, In The Footsteps of Hank Haydock, set on location in Duncombe Park, Helmsley, where Dennis Haydock was stationed prior to D-Day.
Normandy veteran Dennis Haydock, pictured when he was a young soldier
In addition, there will be a live reading with acapella song of a new spoken word piece Sleep/Re-live/Wake/Repeat, or Smudger’s Story, which explores a veteran’s lifelong battle with sleep trauma through the first-hand accounts of Yorkshireman Ken Smith and his wife Gloria.
Ms Fox said:
In 2016, I was approached by the York Normandy Veterans Association to see if I could, as a playwright and screenwriter, find a way to keep their stories being told for future generations.
The most important thing for the two veterans was that through understanding the realities of war for soldiers and civilians, future generations would go forward to ensure such a war never happens again.
She pointed out:
The veterans, who were in their 90s when I first met them, were worrying about what would happen when they had passed away – who would remember the comrades they had left behind in Europe? Comrades who had died in horrific ways, buried in unmarked graves.
Ken was particularly concerned about this. He was haunted by his experiences, to the extent that not a single night went by during his life when he didn’t have sleep trauma.
Both men are now dead, but they left a legacy, as Ms Fox explained:
I wrote Smudger’s Story and In the Footsteps of Hank Haydock to honour their memories, telling their stories in their own words keeps their experiences alive.
Ripon Theatre Festival director Katie Scott added:
We are proud to honour the stories of two ordinary Yorkshire lads who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances. It is particularly appropriate to present this event in Lister House, the home of many retired veterans who have served their country in different, but always challenging, theatres of war.
Bomb Happy will be staged at 2.30pm on May 11 and tickets costing £10 are available at ripontheatrefestival.org
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