'Hoard: Rediscovered' is a set of 12 plays or monologues which have as their central theme the discovery of The Staffordshire Hoard; a finding of the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold in this country ever, in a farmer's field by an amateur metal detector enthusiast.
The pieces have been created for film, despite the semi-theatrical nature of some of them, and have been made available online by The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-Under-Lyme.
The first piece, 'Unearthed' is the longest and the most important of the pieces, as it is explained by creator Theresa Heskins that instead of writing a piece of theatre from all the conversations and interviews she has made and collected surrounding this topic, she thought it would be more informative and more 'real' if actors were used to speak the actual words spoken to her by the people themselves, making this a piece of verbatim theatre of real historical accuracy.
In this piece, which actually feels much more like a BBC documentary than a play, especially with all the computer graphics used throughout too, we are given a history lesson about the hoard, who found it, what happened to it, and of course its significance in terms of historical understanding of the period and value. If 'Time Team' is not your thing, then neither will this be, but I found it informative, learning something of which until then I knew nothing.
Following this were 11 much shorter playlets, monologues etc all written by different people from top-line comediennes such as Isy Suttie or Sara Pascoe to recognised playwrights such as Samuel Adamson, to others of whom I have sadly not heard. Each one as different as the next, some taking the theme from the point of view of the Anglo Saxons themselves, whilst others brought their stories from the present day, and how the hoard has affected them in the here and now. There was humour, pathos, and indeed tragedy in these plays, but also a deal of fantasy too, especially in the tale of a female dragon named Freya who was tasked with keeping watch over the hoard for King Penda of Mercia's youngest son. So we were taken on a journey from Denmark and the tale of Beowulf, into the central English countryside and finished with a Rime - a tale told through poetry - about the hoard which made a lovely end to the compilation.
The advantages of having these online was that one could easily watch a short film (ranging between about 5 minutes to about 15 minutes) in a coffee break whilst doing something else and you didn't need to be sat at the computer the whole time as you would have been in a theatre. The camera also helped in many of these as close-ups of expressions and gestures which might otherwise have been missed were captured too.
All in all the whole project was a very worthy one and indeed interesting. I feel as though I have seen the hoard and know it intimately myself now. Solid and consistent direction throughout from Gemma Fairlie (who also wrote one of the shorts herself), and sympathetic and realistic acting from all involved.. not a weak link in the chain.
Starting educational and informative, we travelled through mystery, romance, myth, legend, and time, and found that actually we have enjoyed our ride and met some interesting and diverse characters along the way.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 22/11/20
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