Breach was invited to create The Half Acre as part of Penned in the Margins’ Fair Field, a series of performances and arts events responding to the medieval epic Piers Plowman at Ledbury Poetry Festival and Shoreditch Town Hall.
Splicing together a contemporary retelling of one section of the poem – “The Ploughing of the Half Acre” with visuals shot around Ledbury’s farms and London’s supermarkets, this multimedia “dream vision” explores the changing nature of work and our relationship to food – drawing a line from medieval feudalism through to today’s precarious labour conditions.
Writers: Billy Barrett and Ellice Stevens
Additional material by Sophie Steer
Directors: Billy Barrett and Ellice Stevens
Video artist: Dorothy Allen-Pickard
Cast: Robin Berry, Michael Oku, Sophie Steer, Ellice Stevens
The Half Acre was commissioned by Penned in the Margins as part of Fair Field , which it conceived and produced. The project was co-commissioned by Ledbury Poetry Festival and Shoreditch Town Hall, and supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and King’s College London Cultural Institute.
