Beverley’s Annual Puppet Festival

Beverley’s fourth annual Puppet Festival is set to be the best yet when it gets under-way next month.

Running from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 July, theatre groups and companies from across the UK and beyond will perform in venues around the town.

The three main venues for the festival will be Armstrongs Social Club, Beverley Friary and Beverley Leisure Centre, while there will also be a number of outdoor performances.

While many of the performances will be modern workings of classic tales suitable for all, others will take a good, long look at social issues in the medium of puppetry.

One such show is from local company, Indigo Moon Theatre.

Their performance, called The Lost Forest, uses Wayang Golek (rod puppets from West Java) and tells the tale of imminent deforestation and the impact of animals living in the forest, asking the ultimate question: Can we save the rain forest?

The festival starts on Friday with A November Day, performed by Thingumajig Theatre of Todmorden, at Armstrongs from 8pm.

For adults and children over 10, it tells the touching tale of a woman who discovers her grandfather’s story of life during World War I, and a tale of friendship in the face of over-whelming odds. It also aims to ask us how we remember the sacrifices made by a lost generation.

Anna Ingleby, puppet festival director for Beverley Arts Trust, said: “Our aim has been to provide events which will appeal to all ages and we hope the puppets will fire the imagination in all of us.

“Should we succeed in that, it will prove again how valuable events of this nature are in bringing different ages and communities together.”

For more information on the event, including day-by-day schedules, continue to visit HU17.net.