The festival, which runs from today (Friday) to Sunday, includes three evening performances at Beverley Memorial Hall aimed at an adult audience.

There is a minimum age of 12-plus for the evening shows, which open tonight when Animated Objects from Scarborough present The Canterbury Tales at 7.30pm.

It is a new adaptation of Chaucer's classic work by Lee Threadgold and is a bawdy, boisterous romp through some of Chaucer's best loved tales.
Tomorrow sees Pickled Image, from Bristol, present Houdini's Suitcase at 8.30pm. This is a piece of visual theatre which fuses live performance, puppetry, and a haunting soundtrack.

On Sunday evening, again at 8.30pm, the festival closes with Thingumajig Theatre from Bradford with The Vertigo of Sheep, in which a well-meaning but unreliable clown attempts to explain the Book of Genesis.

Seventeen professional puppet companies are taking part in 16 theatre shows and 23 outdoor performances over the three days of the festival, which includes events at Beverley Friary, Beverley Leisure Centre, Minster School and the Memorial Hall.

On Saturday and Sunday evenings, after free drop-in puppet making workshops at the Friary, festival organisers Beverley Arts Trust are hosting a free street act in the marquee in the Friary gardens at 7pm.
The festival opens this afternoon when children from local schools perform a show in the Memorial Hall followed by a parade of puppets through the town.

Tickets for the festival events are available from Beverley Tourist Centre, tel (01482) 391672.