Photo taken from within the audience sitting in front of a stage with Rabble Chorus choir singing

Eastern Angles 40th year of touring

4 July 2023

In 1982 five actors came together to create Vital Statistics, a show for unemployed young people, and toured it to local youth clubs. Soon after that came a village hall tour, Marsh Fever - and so, Eastern Angles was born. 41 years later and the company is still on the road, touring a new production to venues across East Anglia, and celebrating its 40th anniversary (a year delayed due to the pandemic). Let's take a look back at the momentous 40th Eastern Angles Spring tour...

Medieval Miracles - On Tour

After years of research and planning, Medieval Miracles headed out on tour across the East of England from mid-March until the end of May. "East Anglia was the Broadway or West End of 15th Century English Theatre" once said a stage historian, and Medieval Miracles aimed to reignite that buzzing theatre scene with modern translations of two of the region's biggest hits - The Trials of Mary & Joseph and Mankind.

In total we gave 42 live performances in 34 different venues across the region, finishing off the tour with a site-specific performance at the Peterborough Celebrates Festival. This community festival was a real celebration of Peterborough, with a diverse range of performers, artists and events in various spaces across Ferry Meadows - a wonderful way to the end an extra special tour!

Photo taken from the back of a busy village hall. There are dark silhouettes of a full audience watching two actors on stage at the end of the hall. — Medieval Miracles at Hadleigh Old School

A circle circus tent is set up on a green field. It has bunting running from it and a Medieval Miracles banner tied to the side (stained glass window design with the show title and a man gardening on it) — Medieval Miracles at the Peterborough Celebrates Festival

People sit in a field at the Peterborough Celebrates Festival, there are various tents and gazebos set up in the distance — The Peterborough Celebrates Festival

Medieval Miracles production photo. Christian and Lily (as Anne and Joachim) stand together smiling and looking on at their child Mary, a wooden puppet of a small girl wearing a plain white dress). The puppet is held by Arieta and Tom (angels), who control her as if walking. — Medieval Miracles production photo

40th Anniversary

Whilst out on tour we took the chance to celebrate our 40th anniversary (a year delayed due to the pandemic) with a special night at Woodbridge Community Hall. Songs from local choir Rabble Chorus, a speech from co-founder and Artistic Director Ivan Cutting, a special look back at one of our first touring productions The Reapers Year with Lawrence Werber, and a performance of Medieval Miracles all helped us mark this momentous occasion.

In our 40 years of touring we've performed in all sorts of venues; we've made theatres out of village halls, tithe barns, aircraft hangers and various other found spaces.Telling stories with a sense of place remains at the heart of everything we do, be it a touring theatre production or a community engagement project. We could not have become the company we are today without the volunteers, creatives, staff, freelancers, crew, and audiences who have joined us in the past 40 years - thank you.

Click here to download our 40th anniversary booklet and take a special look at our touring history.

Close up photo of Ivan and Lawrence on stage performing, Ivan holds a script and pencil in his hand, Lawrence looks sideways at him. — Ivan Cutting and Lawrence Werber re-enact a scene from The Reaper's Year

Medieval Miracles - Outreach Projects

Thanks to National Lottery players and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we've been able to take Medieval Miracles beyond the stage and hold a variety of medieval-inspired outreach projects. Last week we held our final Medieval Stitchers session; this ten-week communal sewing project, designed by local textile artist Felicity Borwick, saw participants hand-stitch individual flag pennants which will come together to create a wall-hanging that we'll display in the Eastern Angles Centre. Other outreach projects also included some stained glass art workshops at the Old Jet with Hassina Khan, and some medieval theatre workshops with local schools and community groups.

Two hand hold up their mini stained glass artworks - sqaures and segments of coloured glass have been soldered together into a small windo design. — Medieval Stained Glass Artwork

Handstitched pennant flags fanned out on a wooden table. Each pennant is a different colour and has a different medieval-inspired design e.g. white doves, flowers on treliss, delicate flower borders — Medieval Stichers

As we welcome our new Artistic Director / CEO Jake Smith to the company, we're looking forward to another exciting 40 years of touring! We hope you'll join us on the journey.