SLUNG Low Theatre’s summer journey through David Scott ’s allegorical novel The Ground Remembered and five North Yorkshire festivals concluded at Ryedale Festival.
Pickering Castle was the nearest that Alan Lane’s Leeds company came to conventional outdoor theatre in five contrasting shows linked by promenade performances and audience members being fitted up with headsets for the storytelling.
One Converging Paths show had been restricted to 12 people per performance; the one-off finale was on a grander scale, attended by 300, kept on the move by five actors for five allegories interspersed with story-songs performed by University of York choir 24.
The experience was still captivating, as actors either stood among us, or spoke from a distant eerie. Magic was in the air, be it a sudden shot of flame or the sight of a barn owl (even if Tilly declined to fly on cue) and by the end, we had each accumulated boxes containing a chocolate football boot, strawberry and jigsaw piece.
Where might that jigsaw be assembled next? Slung Low, Pilot Theatre and York playwright Mike Kenny are to work together for the first time in 2013. Be there, wherever there might be.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here