Ripon Theatre Festival

Spy Movie: The Play!
2025-07-04 20:00 - 22:00 UTC | Ripon Arts Hub, 49 Allhallowgate, Ripon, HG4 1LQ, United Kingdom
Agent Blonde has 24 hours to save the world. The only things standing in her way are dastardly villains, an outrageous plot, and… a lack of funding. When Hollywood rejects her script, a frustrated screenwriter invites you, an audience of producers, to a one-night-only presentation of The Greatest Spy Movie (n)Ever Made! From two of the minds behind The New Musketeers (Trinity Theatre) and stars of The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Spy Movie: The Play! is a new hilarious homage to Bond movies and fringe theatre suitable for the whole family.
“Rollickingly funny.. our faces were aching with how much we were smiling.”
Presented by Norwich Theatre and Albert Cabbage
Age guide 12+
Running time: Approximately two hours including an interval.
Friday 4 July, 8pm.
Tickets £14

Short and Sweet Yorkshire Showcase
2025-07-05 17:00 - 18:20 | Ripon Arts Hub, 49 Allhallowgate, Ripon, HG4 1LQ, United Kingdom
Get ready for an electrifying showcase of Yorkshire’s finest up-and-coming talent as the Short and Sweet Yorkshire Festival Finalists take to the stage at Ripon Festival 2025! This special event celebrates the very best in local new writing, with a diverse line up spanning theatre, spoken word, and music.
Short and Sweet Yorkshire is an annual festival of 10 minute new writing with previous finalists showcased here for you. Expect a thrilling mix of 10 minute genres and styles, from thought-provoking drama to laugh-out-loud comedy, and from heartfelt storytelling to bold, boundary-pushing performances.
Featuring homegrown talent from across Yorkshire, this is a chance to see fresh, original work from the region’s most exciting emerging artists.
Don’t miss the new wave of creative voices bringing their passion and talent to Ripon Festival, 10 minutes at a time!
Age guide 16+
Ticket Price: £7

The Wind in the Willows
2025-07-05 17:30 | Ripon Races
Mole yearns to explore the wide world. Gruff old Badger enjoys peace and quiet. And Rat likes picnics and just messing about in boats. Their idyllic lives on the Riverbank are turned upside down when Toad, bewitched by the roar of an engine and the screech of burning tyres, pursues his latest in a long line of extravagant obsessions: a fast, red motor-car. Multiple award-winning Illyria celebrates Kenneth Grahame’s timeless tale of friendship, laughter, the longing for home and the lure of adventure. Enjoy it all summer across the UK where the story is set: in the great British outdoors.
By Kenneth Grahame. Adapted by Oliver Grey. Presented by Illyria.
Running time: 100-minutes (approximately), including a 20-minute interval.
Suitable for: Ages 5+ (younger children also welcome)Sponsored by Elstob Auctioneers
Please bring your own rug or folding chairs (but no umbrellas!), picnics welcome.
Dogs are NOT allowed at the performance.
Performance continues regardless of weather.
Saturday 5 July, 5.30pm
Tickets £11.00 – £17.00

Almost Austen
2025-07-05 20:00 | Ripon Arts Hub, 49 Allhallowgate, Ripon, HG4 1LQ, United Kingdom
Catherine is a modern girl in love with Jane Austen’s world. She can’t believe her luck when she meets her very own Mr Tilney.
Through passages from Northanger Abbey, songs from musicals and operatic classics, singer Louise Geller relates Catherine’s romantic ups and downs as real life and fantasy collide.
Following a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday festival-style. ‘A must for any Janeite’
Age guide 12+
Saturday 5 July, 8pm.
Tickets £14

A Midsummer Night's Dream
2025-07-06 19:00 - 21:30 | The Old Deanery, Minster Road,, Ripon, HG4 1QS, United Kingdom
It’s Midsummer’s eve and deep in an enchanted forest mischief is stirring. The Fairy King and Queen are feuding, four runaway lovers are tying themselves in knots, and a troupe of quite appalling actors are preparing a theatrical extravaganza destined to impress. With shapeshifting trouble-maker Puck at the helm, the course of true love never did run smooth.
One of the UK’s leading open-air touring companies, Three Inch Fools, bring their fresh and lively style of music, history, and hilarity to Shakespeare’s most iconic comedy.
Staged in the gardens of Ripon’s most exclusive venue, The Old Deanery – this finale event is a guaranteed highlight of the 2025 festival.
Suitable for ages 7+
Gates open 6.15pm
Please bring your own rug or folding chairs (but no umbrellas!).
Picnics welcome but please respect our hosts by purchasing all drinks at the bar.
Dogs are NOT allowed at the performance.
Performance continues regardless of weather.
Running time approx 120 mins including 20 minute interval
Sunday 6 July, 7pm
Tickets: £20

Walking and Writing City and Country
2025-10-04 11:00 - 15:00 | Ripon Marketplace, Market Place, Ripon, HG41BP, United Kingdom
‘Ripon…has not only an agreeable situation on a rising ground between two rivers, but the marketplace is the finest and most beautiful square that is to be seen of its kind in England’ Daniel Defoe 1724-6
Wetlands and rivers, canals and monasteries, monuments and follies; the city of Ripon is an inspirational landscape that has attracted creatives such as Daniel Defoe, poet Wilfred Owen and produced writers such as the suffragette, Naomi Jacobs.
Join acclaimed writer Mary-Jane Holmes on this four-hour walk-and-create writing workshop in and around Ripon. As we stroll its snickets and paths, we will reflect on how our experience of environments shapes us and how by harnessing our powers of deep observation in relation to our surroundings, we can develop a more active way of seeing the world we inhabit.
This workshop will combine ‘attentive’ walking, a performance of poetic works and fun writing exercises. It is open to everyone whether you are a seasoned writer of any genre be that playwriting or poetry, fiction or memoir or simply curious about the creative writing process.
Mary-Jane Holmes has garnered many awards including winning the Bridport Poetry prize, the Writer’s Digest poetry competition, the Live Canon Pamphlet Prize, Bath Novella-in-Flash Prize, Mslexia Flash prize.
A Ripon Poetry Festival event.
Walk begins at the obelisk in Ripon Market Place
Notepads and pencils are provided but do bring a pack lunch and dress appropriately for the weather!
Dogs are NOT allowed at this activity.
Age guide 14+
Tickets: £20
