DARLINGTON has enjoyed a long weekend of community creativity as an award-winning theatre festival returned to the town.

Providing entertainment and fun, the fifth Jabberwocky Market is a market like no other, a festival of world-class theatre performances at different venues throughout the town over a four-day period.

Part of a Collaborative Touring Network of promoters across the UK, they provided a host of events to inspire the next generation of theatre goers.

One of those was Beats North, presented by North-East based Company TSU and Curious Monkey Theatre, who enthralled their adult audience at the Quaker Meeting House with a double bill of one-man plays.

Actors Afnan Iftikhar, 27 from Newcastle and Tom Booth, 24 from Durham, impressed with their interpretation of teenage angst, accompanied by a live soundtrack scratched by DJ Mariam Rezaei.

Afnan, who has been with the group for the last few months, said: “It was a really good audience."

Tom, who also toured with Beats North at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014, added: "They were receptive right from the beginning."

Darlington for Culture volunteer Julia Bishop summed up the audience’s reaction: “It was perfectly pitched, a poignant story of teenage boys, I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

After dancing at the guilty pleasure disco following the Beats North performance, many of the crowd continued to the next event at the Voodoo Café for one of the Fun Palaces events.

The Fun Palace believe in the genius of everyone, in everyone an artist and in everyone a scientist.

Dr Lorraine Coghill from Durham University hosted this ‘Ask a Scientist’ hour, to give adults and children the opportunity to chat and discuss all things science.

Edith Thomas, six, from Mowden Primary School had been looking forward to going with her brother Charles, two, and had been making volcanoes from bicarbonate of soda and vinegar with her Dad before attending.

She had asked the very first question and tested Dr Coghill with: “How does your brain work?”

Festival producer Caroline Pearce said: “Everything ran smoothly and has gone really well, the shows were brilliant and all busy, the audiences enjoyed themselves and the volunteers were amazing.”

For more details, visit jabberwockymarket.org.uk