Show delves further into our history
DETAILS OF THE SECOND VERSION OF SPECTACULAR ARE REVEALED
LAST year we saw the Romans, the Vikings and Winston Churchill – but other key figures from English history will enter the Kynren arena this year.
Joining the spectacular pageant for its second season in Bishop Auckland will be tribal leader Queen Boudicca – or Boedicea – who led a famous revolt against the Romans in 60 or 61AD.
According to Eleven Arches, the company behind Kynren – An Epic Tale of England, she will make a dramatic entrance, cantering into the purposebuilt arena on horseback alongside her daughters.
The scene, we are promised, “has been painstakingly developed, involving a new costume befitting such an imposing female character”.
Adding to the spectacle will be the imported grey Lusitano horses which have been trained to rear up on cue and perform amid flaming torches.
There are also starring roles for Cardinal Wolsey, seen as Henry VIII’s “fixer-in-chief”, fisherwomen of Lindisfarne and medieval wrestlers, and we are also promised a giant axeman from the battle of Stamford Bridge. This was the bloody dust-up in 1066 when King Harold defeated the Vikings in East Yorkshire ahead of the Battle of Hastings. A musket battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers promises to convey something of the violence of the English Civil War and last season’s tranquil and poetic representation of the First World War appears to have been pepped up with a “thrilling” motorcycle chase.
Creative director Steve Boyd, whose experience as a choreographer takes in Olympic opening ceremonies, had a brief to deliver a “bigger, better and even brighter” show. Visitors to this second season can expect more detail, more special effects and an even bigger cast drawn from local volunteers.
Kynren – An Epic Tale of England is the result of investment in Bishop Auckland by philanthropist Jonathan Ruffer.
There will be 17 Friday and Saturday performances between July and September, and tickets are on sale at www. kynren.co.uk.