Wilfrid return to the streets of Ripon, 1300 years on

1300 years after his death, St Wilfrid has made a dramatic reappareance in the streets, thanks to a street theatre company made up of professional and local amateur actors.

St Wilfrid of Ripon, or a Tale of Two Tonsures is one of the centrepieces of the year long Wilfrid1300 festival based around Ripon Cathedral. The man who turned a small rural monastery into a great church and in the process ensured that Ripon would become a major town is this year being remembered in an exciting and novel way.  Street Wise Theatre performed the new play on Saturday July 25th at 11.30am in the Market Place of Ripon and outside the West Front of the Cathedral. In August it will be performed at Fountains Abbey - on 2, 8. 9 August. 

Howard Firth (above) as Wilfrid

The play is a 'humorous and racy account of Wilfrid’s life' which reveals that Wilfrid was not the normal sweet, good saint of popular imagination.  He was a determined man of firm views.  He believed fervently that Rome was right and that the English church had to change from its old Celtic ways and, by ensuring that it did helped to set the direction of the church in England for 900 years.  Many things changed as a result - from the relationship between church and state, to the date of Easter and the shape of the tonsure (that shaved bit on the top of a priest’s or monk’s head). Hence the title of this year’s street theatre production, St Wilfrid of Ripon or a Tale of Two Tonsures.

Street Wise was formed as part of the Discovering Ripon Cathedral project begun in 2007 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.  In addition to the Heritage Lottery Fund, funding support is being provided by a number of organisations including Harrogate Borough Council and The Ernest Cook Trust. The Ernest Cook Trust will be funding historic drama workshops based on the St Wilfrid Play in local schools which the group will undertake next autumn and winter.

The play was part of Ripon's Medieval Fayre which in addition to street theatre, included medieval knights sword fighting, medieval musicians, medieval food, brass rubbing, quill work, saxon tablet weaving, monastic sign language, plain chant singing a medieval poetry workshop, and medieval games.