Older performers explore ageing with humour, creativity and insight in a new show at Leeds Playhouse.
“Ripe is an ageing process that begins rather than ends. Ripe is the stories of what an older body can do and be.”
Members of The Performance Ensemble, a Leeds-based company of creatives aged 60-90, negotiate attitudes to ageing that restrict who they are in Ripe, a new show premiering in the Bramall Rock Void.
Directed by Lucy Campbell, this uplifting and groundbreaking show explores the fragility and strengths inherent in the ageing process with humour, movement and creativity. Lucy: “Ripe is about the way we look at older bodies in art and in life. It plays with the idea of the youthful gaze and how it traps us all – young and old – into a fear of ageing. The point of Ripe is to ask ‘how can we look at ageing differently?’.”
The Performance Ensemble is a creative group of writers, dancers, musicians and actors with an incredible breadth and depth of lived experience. The work they produce is multi-layered and meaningful, with contributions from people of all backgrounds and nationalities, shared through movement, dance, song and the spoken word.
Their previous production, Sinfonia, enjoyed two runs at the Playhouse; first, as part of 1001 Stories in spring 2023, during which older creatives took over the building in a two-week celebration of age and ageing, and second, in a standalone run in spring 2024. A rich and moving performance, it featured personal stories written and performed by the cast, interwoven with original music and beautiful choreography.
Listings information
The Performance Ensemble presents Ripe
Bramall Rock Void, Leeds Playhouse
15-16 November
Age 14+
Box office 0113 213 7700
Book online at leedsplayhouse.org.uk
