There is something quietly radical about giving people the space to stand up and simply tell the truth about their lives.

In Sinfonia: Stories from Harrogate, older people from the local community take to the stage to share fragments of their stories. Some are small, almost throwaway moments. Others carry the weight of a lifetime. Together, they form a portrait of what it means to live, to love, to lose and to keep going.

The Performance Ensemble have a gift for finding the extraordinary in the everyday. A memory, a gesture, a piece of music, a few words spoken directly to an audience. The show unfolds with a quiet confidence, allowing humour, anger, tenderness and joy to sit side by side.

There is music and movement, but it is the people you remember. Their honesty, and the quiet recognition that these stories are not so far from your own.

Created with Harrogate residents, this is theatre that belongs to the place it is made. It doesn’t shout for attention. It invites you in, gently, and stays with you long after you leave.

★★★★ ‘Joyous, life-affirming… full of warmth, humour and Yorkshire grit.’ – The Yorkshire Post
★★★★ ‘A beautiful piece of thought-provoking theatre… a real gem of a show.’ – The Stage

Director: Alan Lyddiard
Choreographer: Tamara McLorg
Composer: Nikola Kodjabashia

The Performance Ensemble is the first national collective of older artists working together to make art from the experience of age. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Alan Lyddiard, the company creates meaning, beauty and joy from the seemingly ordinary.