The Barrington Hippo

Produced by Cambridge City Opera for Cambridge Science Festival 2018 and Tête-à-tête: The Opera Festival 2018

In association with St Andrew's Primary School, Soham and The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

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The Barrington Hippo was made in collaboration with sixty Year 5s (8- and 9-year-olds) from St Andrew’s Primary School, Soham. Sinéad and her team used music and puppetry to explore complex ideas of life, death and geological time. The children wrote an original song, ‘Baby hippo,’ exploring the life of an individual in the face of geological time. The Barrington Hippo uses storytelling, music, live animation and the visual language of cave painting to tell the story of climate change and changing landscape.

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Directed by Sinéad O'Neill 

Written by Sinéad O'Neill and Kate Whitley

Shadow painting by Sally Todd

Photography by Claire Shovelton