George Egg brings his latest show, Set Menu, to Ripon on Thursday (March 21) as the main dish in a crazy culinary evening to launch the 2024 Ripon Theatre Festival.

Festival director Katie Scott, told the Stray Ferret:

“We’re getting off to a good start with all tickets quickly snapped up for the show from George Egg  – the comedian who cooks.

“This award-winning, multi-sell-out, international-touring performer presents a delightful evening’s cooking-with-laughs comprising the best bits from his previous acclaimed shows, plus a few new surprises.

“Over the past half-decade George has toured three shows (‘Anarchist Cook’, ‘DIY Chef’ and ‘Movable Feast’), he’s cooked over a thousand dishes, all of them in front of a live audience and none of them with a kitchen.”

Revisiting those unlikely environments armed with the chef’s skills he’s honed, he’ll show how to make food on a train with a laptop, in a shed with power tools and with hotel bedroom appliances. Plates of gourmet food prepared in the most unconventional of ways and with the opportunity to taste the results at the end.

Ms Scott, added:

“It’s time for the funniest recipes and the most delicious jokes. George has appeared and cooked on ‘Bake Off: An Extra Slice’ (Channel 4), ‘Steph’s Packed Lunch’
(Channel 4) and ‘This Morning’ (ITV).

“He’s made food live on the radio too on ‘Loose Ends’ (BBC R4) a show which is now regularly co-hosts, you can hear him every Monday on Craig Charles’ (BBC 6 Music)
Show, and he’s even presented an episode of ‘The Food Programme’ (BBC R4).”

Full details of this year’s Ripon Theatre Festival will be announced at Thursday’s event which takes place at Ripon Arts Hub with refreshments courtesy of Valentino’s Ristorante. The evening is sponsored byGolden Frog Marketing.

The summer festival will take place from Tuesday 2 – Sunday 7 July with five days and six nights crammed with events and activity.

Tickets for seven events are already on sale, but audiences at the George Egg event will hear announcements about the full programme, including outdoor, free, and family events set to take place at a multitude of locations across the city. click here for full information about all events.

Image George Egg. Picture Ripon Theatre Festival

Ripon Theatre Festival, which goes from strength to strength, has announced a strategic partnership with the Stray Ferret.

North Yorkshire’s leading online news service has been appointed media sponsors for the fast-growing festival, which was launched in 2022,

As preparations continue for an extended third year programme and with tickets now on sale festival director Katie Scott, said:

“We are delighted to welcome the Stray Ferret as our media sponsors for the 2024  festival.

“We have appreciated the encouragement and coverage which the Stray Ferret has given us. Working together helps us to reach more people with news of our vibrant and exciting plans for the summer.

“All of us involved in planning for and running the festival. like to think that we “punch above our weight”

Ms Scott added:

“With its wide range of professional and community performances and activities,  entirely volunteer-led, we make this happen though imaginative partnerships with venues, funders and community groups who are all working to help put Ripon on the map and make it a great place to live, work and visit.”

Charley Christopher, marketing and audience manager at the Stray Ferret, said:

“We are thrilled to be the festival’s principal media sponsor. It’s a partnership we’re excited about and we know from recent research, our readers are very much inspired by arts, culture and events happening in the area.

“Not only does the festival make the arts accessible to all and encourages visitors to this beautiful, unique city.”

Festival highlights for 2024

This year’s festival highlights include an appearance by radical theatre company Red Ladder, a cabaret act featuring the music of Victoria Wood and a return visit from actor Barrie Rutter.

Newby Hall will be a new location for festival favourites and open-air theatre specialists Illyria and the garden at the Old Deanery will provide a backdrop for theatre al fresco when it hosts the Sunday night Shakespearean finale.

Full details of all the festival’s plans including street theatre, pop-up events and free family activities will be announced at the official launch on Thursday, March 21.

Tickets are already on sale for this event, which features comedy cook George Egg with his latest show Set Menu. Tickets include the show, refreshments and festival information.

Full information is available here.

Picture: Ripon Theatre Festival director Katie Scott (right) is pictured with Charley Christopher, the Stray Ferret’s marketing, events and customer manager.

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The 2023 Ripon Poetry Festival, which came to a close yesterday evening, proved a success with sell-out performances and a record entry for the annual poetry competition.

The final event, held at the Ripon Arts Hub on Allhallowgate, was an evening with theatre legend Barrie Rutter, the actor and director who founded Northern Broadsides to champion acting talent from the north.

This year’s 11-day festival also featured Internationally-famous children’s author Michael Rosen, who made a return to the city, having helped to launch the first Ripon Poetry Festival in 2017.

Festival curator Andy Cross told the Stray Ferret:

“It has been another tremendous year. We’ve had sell-out events from the outset and more than 300 entries for the poetry competition, which is a new record.”

Mr Croft (pictured above, centre) was among the panel of three judges that included Ripon Theatre Festival director Katie Scott and last year’s competition winner Simon Strickland (pictured left) who selected the poem, Newborn, written by Edmund Thomson Jones as the 2023 winning entry.

His entry, which was inspired by the birth of his daughter, now features alongside other entries in the 142-page festival anthology titled Creative Juices.

A separate anthology including entries from children, has also been published.

The festival, which  is the biggest of its kind in Yorkshire saw performances from poets Hadley-James Hoyles, Alison Carr, Robert Powell and Sarah Wimbush.

In addition to workshops for children and adults there was open mic evening organised by Write-on Ripon and Ripon Writers Group.

A review of An Audience with Barrie Rutter is available here.

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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.

Volunteers Lindy (left) and Judy showed visitors what wash day in the Workhouse was like for its Victorian inmates

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:

“It has been a great success. Building on last year’s launch we have seen increased ticket sales and hundreds of people attending the free outdoor events and pop up shows.

“This gives us a tremendous platform for next year.”

Festival director Katie Scott

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Puppets will be popping up in some unexpected places as part of a number of new features included in Ripon Theatre Festival’s expanded programme.

Organisers have added a series of pop-up mini events throughout Ripon, working with shops, cafés and city attractions to bring puppet shows and storytelling to unusual and intimate surroundings.

This includes Puppets for Breakfast at Wetherspoon’s Unicorn Hotel, a suitcase puppet show The Hare and the Moon in the Cabmen’s shelter in the Market Place and the GreenHouse shop on North Street, and Beached, an immersive puppet show at Ripon Cathedral, where performers and audience members wear headphones for the experience.

St Wilfrid’s Crypt in the Cathedral will see Fell-Foss Theatre’s rolling performance of The Wanderer and expert storyteller Gav Cross will bring Twisted Tales for Terrible Children to the somewhat spooky Curzon Cinema Cellar and the Courthouse Museum.

The second Ripon Theatre Festival will take place from Wednesday, June 7 to Sunday, June 11, featuring four days and five nights crammed with performances and activity.

Drama highlights include visits from up-and-coming theatre companies performing in Ripon Arts Hub, a return visit from open-air specialists Illyria with their family show Robin Hood at Fountains Abbey, and a production of Sense and Sensibility in the garden at The Old Deanery.

The festival will also be welcoming BBC Radio 4 favourite and gentle Northern activist Kate Fox, and Liz Grand with her one-woman show Where’s Mrs Christie?.

Rhubarb Theatre’s A Wonderland of Games will feature as part of the free family fun in Spa Gardens on Sunday June 11.

There are many festival events for children and families. In addition to shows at Ripon Library on Thursday and Friday , there will be street theatre, walkabout acts and pop-up performances throughout the weekend.

Circus, street theatre and community combine on Saturday at two performance zones, the Market Place and Minster Gardens (adjacent to Ripon Cathedral). Featured entertainment includes a comic escapology show from The Maniax and Dizzy O’Dare’s award-winning Giant Balloon Show.

Spa Gardens will be the focus of free family-friendly theatre and puppetry on Sunday June 11. The festival promises a “boredom-free zone” with visits from Hoglets Theatre, Rhubarb Theatre, Frolicked and Strange-Twig Theatre, alongside music and dance from community performers. A highlight of day will be performances of A La Puppet Carte when three electric tricycles open up to reveal three heart-warming puppet shows from Thingumajig Theatre.

Festival characters and performers will also visit Sunday’s Little Bird Artisan Market, adding additional colour and fun in the Market Place.

Thanks to the support of local businesses and key funders, much of the Festival is totally free to enjoy and ticketed events are low-cost.

Festival director Katie Scott said:

“We are delighted that this year we are offering many performances as ‘pay what you can’ events. We know that families in particular are feeling the financial crunch and this allows ticket purchasers to select their chosen amount or to opt for a free ticket. This is also a way of encouraging people to come to multiple performances by spreading their budget and trying different shows in different venues.”

The Ripon Theatre Festival programme also includes Overblown! a community-led evening of sketches and music, a premiere performance of work by local poet Ian Gouge, a musical travelogue for Sunday brunch from Steve Bonham, and Bread is Life – a lunchtime meze event where both Syrian stories and food will be shared. The festival opens on Wednesday, June 7 with dystopian comedy Happy Place at Ripon Arts Hub.