Theatre Throwback to Staffordshire Hoard Theatre Festival

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As Staffordshire celebrates 10 years since the Staffordshire Hoard was first discovered by a metal detectorist in a farmers field near Lichfield, we would like to give you a Staffordshire Theatre throwback to the wonderful Hoard Festival that was staged by The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle Under Lyme back in 2015.

The remarkable 5 week Hoard festival event saw 19 leading UK writers and  theatre-makers showcase new plays about the Staffordshire discovery that put the county on the world map.

More About The Staffordshore Hoard Festival

The Hoard Festival took over the whole theatre-in-the-round for an entire five weeks, featuring new work inspired by and celebrating the Staffordshire Hoard.

It also deservedly acheived Guardian top 10 shows status.  Guardian theatre critic Alfred Hickling  listed the New Vic’s Hoard Festival in his top ten shows of that year.

In his feature, Alfred Hickling highlighted New Vic Artisitic Director Theresa Heskins’ Unearthed show – an archaeological ‘whodunnit’ – describing it as a ‘fascinating verbatim documentary’.

But the festival almost didn’t happen.

During research and development for the idea of creating a Staffordshire Hoard play, it became evident that very little was actually known about it.  When the New Vic team approcahed experts with the idea of producing work about about the treasure trove, they were taken aback to discover how little they knew about it.

Theresa Heskins remembers that “For the entire week, I was asking the scientists and historians questions about the hoard and its meanings – why it was there, and what it signified – and all I heard back was: ‘We don’t know. It can be anything you want it to be.’ So I asked: ‘When will you know, so I can commission a play?’”

The fact was it was going to take 10 years or more for the experts to reach any conclusions.

But rather than this put her play idea on hold for a decade, that insted, there were so many theories about the hoard – some fact-based, others entirely fanciful – that she could actully commission not just one play, but many pieces of work to encompass them all and explore a range of myths and meaning.

And so the idea of the festival was born, leading to the eventual creation of 19 original pieces of theatre.

When Will We See You Again?

It would be great, in this tenth year celebrating the Staffordshire Hoard, to find out of these peices had all been recorded, and made available again – perhaps as either downloads or a streamed theatre event.  Any chance New Vic Theatre?

But if no chance of that – then here are a few photos from the New Vic Hoard Festival.  How good did it look!.  Photo credits Andrew Billington / New Vic Theatre

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MORE ABOUT THE STAFFORDSHIRE HOARD

For centuries the largest ever haul of Anglo-Saxon treasures known in Britain lay untouched in a farmer’s field until the summer of 2009, when a metal detectorist quite literally struck gold.

From the chance discovery of a couple of pieces by metal detectorist Terry Herbert to the eventual removal of 4,000 items of gold, silver and garnets, what became known as the Staffordshire Hoard remains the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver found anywhere in the world.

Since approximately 700AD the treasures had lain untouched a few feet below the surface of a farmer’s field until the amazing discovery in the summer of 2009.

In a month-long excavation project, initially more than 3,500 pieces of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver were unearthed. Many feature beautiful garnet inlays or animals in elaborate filigree.

The cache amounted to 5.094 kilos of gold, 1.442 kilos of silver and 3,500 cloisonné garnets and was valued at £3.285 million.

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THE HOARD – TEN YEARS ON

A decade later the story of the Hoard lives on. Hundreds of small pieces have been painstakingly reassembled to recreate the objects they once made up, revealing even more about who owned it and how it ended up in a Staffordshire field.

In late 2012, the Hoard field was ploughed again and a further 81 small items, including a second ‘cheek piece’ were found and the archaeologists are satisfied everything has been found.

Since its discovery ten years ago, the Staffordshire hoard has been a focus of world-wide interest including the Vatican when a replica of a cross found in the hoard was presented to the Pope as a gift.

The Staffordshire Hoard collection is jointly owned by Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent City Councils on behalf of the nation and is cared for by Birmingham Museums Trust and The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, where items of the Hoard are on display.

More at www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”2100″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1459497243411{padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]Note that the links above will take you out of this website to third party websites and social media accounts. 

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