'Hope Opera', a production by Riding Lights Theatre Company will be performed during their Prison and Church Tour 2004 from 8th July until 20th November in various locations around the country from London to as far north as Scotland. The play is set in a house in Liverpool where a group of people meet and share amazing stories; stories of great scrapes and escapes from a bizarre mix of characters such as the man made of anger, a girl whose curiosity gets the better of her and a boy with nothing but tattoo’s to his name.

Founded in York in 1977, Riding Lights Theatre Company began as a community theatre project, and now almost three decades later they have gained recognition as a pioneer of restoring the ideals of theatre with Christian ideals and for a number of original and artistic works. Through theatre, Riding Lights Theatre Company reaches out to people through shared experiences of life in places such as schools, prisons, theatres and local groups. In the last ten years they have performed around the country and have generated seventeen major productions. Past performances have included ‘Saving Grace’, ‘Losing It’, ‘Going overboard’ and ‘Die Laughing’.

Paul Burbridge, artistic director of Riding Lights Theatre Company, says, “Our understanding is that human life flourishes within a framework which is defined by God who created this world. In Jesus Christ, he provided a means of rescue from everything which makes his creation less than perfect. He maintains a loving purpose for the world which can be discovered by each individual who travels through it. So the whole of life is there to be explored and assessed, not least through the theatre.

While we all wrestle with human failure and the problems it causes, ideals can have the greatest significance and the words that come from the lips of Christ continue to inspire us. For Riding Lights, that inspiration provides the hub for a whole range of activities - a still point for the broadest and most inclusive engagement with the whole spectrum of human endeavour. There is no agenda hidden behind Riding Lights Theatre Company. Our aim, quite simply, is to allow the public process of theatre to open windows through which anybody might gain a little more light on the journey which, we believe, God walks with us.”