Lauren Crisp is a book editor, writer and keen follower of arts and culture. She reviews theatre and cultural events in and around the district in her spare time.

You can contact Lauren on laurencrispwriter@gmail.com. 

Ripon was abuzz with culture last week as it celebrated its third year of the ever-growing Ripon Theatre Festival. Free and paid-for events for all ages popped up across the city, its streets filled with live entertainment and its most beautiful venues – Newby Hall, The Old Deanery, Fountains Abbey and Ripon Cathedral – playing host to an array of art forms.

Alongside its many community performances, the programme included a number of professional touring productions. 

Earlier in the week, actor and director Barrie Rutter performed his new show, Shakespeare’s Royals, and audiences were treated to a cabaret-style celebration of the music of Victoria Wood, Looking for Me Friend.

On Saturday night, I went along to Ripon Arts Hub to catch We’re Not Going Back by Leeds-based radical theatre company, Red Ladder.

First written and performed ten years ago, the play was specially commissioned by Unite the Union to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the miners’ strike. Now, ten years on, the play and its original cast return to the stage to mark the big 4-0 with a new director, Elvi Piper, at the helm.

Based upon descriptions of those who were there, the show plots the history of the miners’ strike through the eyes of the women of the pit communities, who, in writer Boff Whalley’s words, “embodied the spirit and passion of the strike”.

Sisters Olive (Victoria Brazier), Mary (Stacey Sampson) and Isabel (Claire O’Connor) are about as different as siblings can be, but as the strike envelops the pit village in which they’ve spent their whole lives, their sisterly bond means everything.

The production’s sparse staging, with few and multi-use props, mirrors the women’s resourcefulness and inventiveness, and, with few visual distractions, the body of the play can really sing.

Whalley’s brilliant script is sharp, clever and funny, his music perfect: songs are joyful and defiant.

 The cast of four (the sisters, plus musical director Beccy Owen, who accompanies songs on keyboard as periphery character, Sue) brings Whalley’s writing to life, with humorous and heartfelt delivery, and beautiful vocals.

Director Elvi Piper’s revival is wonderful; as a piece of pure theatre, it’s excellent. As a piece of political theatre, it must, of course, be understood as such. Whatever your takeaway, it is a part of our history that still resonates, forty years on.

We’re Not Going Back is touring until 23 October 2024. Ripon Theatre Festival will return next summer.