Behold! New festival inspired by Staffordshire Hoard

Published: 4 April 2014
Reporter: Steve Orme

The New Vic will host the Behold festival in summer 2015 Credit: Steve Orme

Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic will unearth stories of the Staffordshire Hoard after winning one of only a handful of special Arts Council England grants.

Supported by £198,000 from Arts Council England’s Exceptional Awards programme, the Behold festival will take over the theatre-in-the-round in summer 2015.

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found anywhere in the world. Discovered in a field near Lichfield in 2009, it consists of more than 3,500 items.

The New Vic will commission emerging and established artists to create up to 21 pieces of work inspired by the many stories of the Hoard.

The New Vic’s artistic director, Theresa Heskins, says, “When I went to the first exhibition of the Hoard, when the pieces were still crusted with soil and the gold shone through only here and there, I was struck by how little we currently know about it.

“I wanted to make a piece about it, but there were so many possible stories that I couldn’t settle on one. So I decided that we’ll tell all the stories.

“We’re inviting the country’s leading poets, playwrights and theatre makers to apply their imaginations to the facts, each creating a piece of work to be presented as part of a festival here at the New Vic.”

Three new dramas will be commissioned for the main stage, there will be exhibitions for front-of-house areas and short pieces will be performed in the theatre’s bar.

Peter Knott, area director of Arts Council England, explains, “The Exceptional Awards programme provides us with an opportunity to recognise truly remarkable ideas of national importance and Behold is a project that certainly matches the criteria.”

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