Part witch, part wood nymph, wholly herself – Firth's Batty! turns midlife and menopause into a riotous, tender celebration of women who refuse to be tamed. Victoria Firth's fiercely funny new work asks whether ageing makes women wild rather than mad – and finds a Ripon Theatre Festival first along the way.

There is a fine old Yorkshire tradition of calling something "batty" when you mean it fondly rather than clinically, and Victoria Firth's new dance-theatre piece wears the word as a badge of honour rather than a diagnosis. This is a play made in the Yorkshire language, in spirit and in soul, and it is all the better for it.

Firth plays a middle-aged woman quietly wondering whether she is losing her mind, or perhaps just losing patience with being told who she should be. Her companion on this journey — part spirit, part familiar, and part imaginary friend conjured from the undergrowth — is played with tremendous invention by Kathryn Hanke, and the two together generate a syncopated, almost musical rhythm to the piece: gestures and words landing just off the beat, the effect being wonderfully unsettling in the best possible sense.

The questions the show asks are big ones — are we losing our minds or simply changing, and isn't it worth remembering that you can't change back? — but they arrive wrapped in enormous warmth and even bigger laughs.

Underpinning all of these questions is a quietly radical idea: that what is dismissed as women losing their grip is very often something else entirely — a reconnection with instinct, with nature, with the parts of themselves that convention asks them to tidy away. Firth isn't interested in madness. She's interested in wildness and in reclaiming it as something worth celebrating rather than fearing.

A rousing snatch of On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at drew warm chuckles from the audience, as did a wry digression on body hair and broomstick-riding (read into that what you will). There's a properly candid bit about visiting the GP and the particular exasperation of not being heard or understood and a sharp routine contrasting men peeing in sinks with what women have quietly put up with for generations — cups, clamps and all. The show finds real mileage, too, in mindfulness, and in a nice throwaway line about Facebook, FaceTime and face packs that raised a knowing chuckle.

Underneath the comedy sits something more serious: a point about plastic and what we're doing to the world around us and a repeated, plaintive reminder that if you don't use yourself, you lose yourself. It's an emotional show, not always a straightforward one, and better for it.

The stagecraft matches the ambition. The set – a cottage tucked into a forest, cluttered and lived-in – does a huge amount of storytelling on its own, and the sound design, all breath, wind and distant barking, gives the piece a visceral, almost physical presence that only became fully clear once explained in the Q&A afterwards.

The Q&A session, incidentally, is not an afterthought added to the end of the evening; it is an integral part of the show and essential viewing. Firth and Hanke were as engaging off-script as on, and it was here that Ripon Theatre Festival marked a genuine first, with a BSL (British Sign Language) performer on stage — a milestone for the festival and a very welcome one.

Directed by Natasha Holes (who has been associated with the festival since it began) and performed with real generosity and skill by Victoria Firth and Kathryn Hanke, Batty! the show is funny, strange, moving, and entirely unique. Not every show needs a straight line from beginning to end. This one certainly doesn't have one and is all the richer for it. The production tours are later in the year — seek them out, and whatever you do, stay for the Q&A. It's genuinely fascinating.



Catch up with Batty!

Thursday 1st October – Sheffield Crucible – ON SALE SOON

Monday 5th October – Wakefield Theatre Royal – ON SALE SOON

Thursday 8th October – Victoria Hall, Settle – ON SALE SOON

Friday 9th October – Helmsley Arts Centre – ON SALE SOON

Saturday 10th October – Rural Arts, Thirsk – ON SALE SOON

Sunday 11th October – Yarm – ON SALE SOON

Wednesday 14th October – Hull Truck Theatre – ON SALE SOON

Thursday 22nd October – The Muni, Pendle – ON SALE SOON

Saturday 7th November – Helmsley Arts Centre – ON SALE SOON