Theatre / battle of the beanfield
Preview: The Beanfield, Wardrobe Theatre
It’s been over 30 years since the Battle of the Beanfield, 1985’s brutal police crackdown on the annual Stonehenge Free Festival. Called away from policing the miners’ strike, officers enforced an injunction around the ancient stones with bloody violence and mass arrests.
Armed with a camera, a map and home-made riot gear, Warwick University’s Breach Theatre have set out to mark the anniversary with a historical re-enactment. Onstage, the same performers try to capture the 2015 Stonehenge summer solstice: there’s hot dog stands, Hare Krishnas and MDMA-fuelled raving, as a group of young people try to connect – but it all feels a bit fake.
“The show combines a documentary strand which presents our attempt to historically re-enact the Battle, with a fictional strand following an experience at the 2015 Stonehenge summer solstice,” explains co-director Billy Barrett. “The documentary explores memory, social histories versus official narratives, and the politics of historical reconstruction. The contemporary strand is inspired by the experiences that several of us had attending the solstice in 2014 – showing how the event has changed since it has been legalised and managed.
is needed now More than ever
“I hope that, despite the show’s seemingly bleak outlook, we’ve tried to present a more hopeful vision of how we all might live and relate to each other. Less abstractly, the show draws attention to issues around civil liberties and the right to public assembly and dissent – all of which need defending now more than ever.”
The Beanfield Wardrobe Theatre, Apr 28-30. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/the-beanfield
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