Anna Himali Howard

2015 saw 30 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, Breach set out to create a historical re-enactment - interviewing a traveller, a police officer and a journalist before driving to Wiltshire armed with homemade riot gear, a map and a video camera. In this 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.

Opera North’s adventurous new production of an ancient tragedy is told through a meeting of the worlds of Indian and western baroque classical music. The bowed strings of the violin and the tar shehnai, the hammered strings of the santoor, the plucked strings of the harpsichord and sitar, and the rhythms of the tabla shape a unique musical encounter.