A modern retelling of The Odyssey continues along the Yorkshire Coast with the tour of a giant puppet known as The Survivor in various locations. John Blow reports.

‘Epic’ is one way of describing the Yorkshire Coast, so it’s entirely fitting that it is playing host to a modern retelling of The Odyssey.

And the wait is nearly over for the latest part of the story.

Animated Objects’ reimagining of Homer’s Greek tales are being told along a 100-mile stretch of the coast from Spurn Point on the Humber Estuary all the way up to Staithes in North Yorkshire, through a series of more than 50 live and digital outdoor events.

Whitby beach. Picture by James Hardisty.

The stories have been brought to life on film and as an audio app, featuring more than 500 members of the community, enjoyed in tandem with the Yorkshire coastline’s scenery.

The latest part is The Survivor, one of the most eagerly anticipated elements of the project– a giant puppet in the form of a woman, which will tour towns along the coast.

The visual performance, which includes artworks, music and spoken word as she arrives in each location, tells the tale of a teenage girl displaced by the Trojan Wars.

“It makes Homer’s Odyssey feel as if it always had the Yorkshire Coast in mind,” says Kerry Carruthers, chief executive of the Yorkshire Coast BID business group.

Lee Threadgold, Artistic Director of Animated Objects, at Staintondale near Scarborough working on some giant puppet heads to be used in The Odyssey. Picture: Gary Longbottom.

“It has been fantastic to be involved with such a creative project and see it come to life over the last three years. We’re going to be documenting the journey with behind-the-scenes footage and filming snippets of the activity to show the scale and hard work that has gone into this project.”

She said that the project would not have been possible without “hundreds of residents, businesses and community organisations taking this to their hearts”.

Local groups, including Girl Guides, were been involved in making a special blanket for the puppet to wear and in every town that she visits.

Animated Objects is a Scarborough-based theatre company run by husband and wife team Lee Threadgold and Dawn Dyson-Threadgold.

Lee trained in puppetry and community engagement at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten at Utrecht in the Netherlands and later met Dawn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where she worked as company stage manager for ten years, alongside Sir Alan Ayckbourn.

During the last five years, the pair have worked with more than 40,000 participants, and produced performances enjoyed by tens of thousands of people in public settings.

They had to put together a comprehensive proposal to secure funding for The Odyssey – which follows Odysseus, the poem’s hero, on an epic journey as he attempts to return to his beloved homeland – from the Yorkshire Coast BID and the ambitious project had been three years in the making.

Last year they worked with local artists to create a touring exhibition of one thousand origami paper ships, each of which featured imagery inspired by the coast.

Dawn says: “We have such an incredible coastline and countryside and that’s why we’ve chosen to set such an epic tale in this unique and dramatic landscape.

“The tale of ‘The Survivor’ is beautiful, relevant and important, which shows the kindness all people should be treated with. The performances will really help bring the stories to life, and culture to the coast. Keep an eye out for even more to come.”

The Survivor will visit Withernsea on Friday April 29; Hornsea on Saturday April 30; Whitby on Sunday May 1; Filey on Monday May 2 (Bank Holiday); Bridlington’s South Bay on Friday May 6 and Scarborough’s South Bay on Saturday May 7. The Survivor will also tour the area on an open topped bus, passing through rural locations between Spurn Point and Staithes on Sunday May 8.

Whitby, Scarborough, Bridlington, Filey, Withernsea and Hornsea continue to play host to The Odyssey on the Yorkshire Coast