The Beanfield. Breach Theatre

The Beanfield - Breach Theatre

‘It’s a very sore subject around here. There are raw wounds.’ 2015 saw thirty years since the ‘Battle of the Beanfield’ – a brutal 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. Determined to mark the anniversary, performance makers Breach set out to stage a historical re-enactment – armed with homemade riot gear, a map of Wiltshire and a video camera. In this acclaimed multimedia show, the footage is intercut with a live performance attempting to capture the 2015 summer solstice at Stonehenge: there are hot dog stands, Hare Krishnas and MDMA, as a group of young people try to connect – but it all feels a bit fake. Breach’s award-winning mashup of new writing and documentary film has been called ‘a new kind of fusion theatre’ (Matt Trueman).