Details

Lidice Shall Live is a three day event that will explore the atrocity of Lidice and its connection with Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. Situated in the Victoria Hall, the location of the first Lidice Shall Live Campaign, dance groups will perform adaptations of the story through contemporary Dance. Laura Stacey, Acting Creative Learning Manager said: "We have very strong dance groups in the area and this Festival will enable them to explore a piece of history through what they do best. We have groups from Ash Green Primary School to Sandy Lane Dancers." Each night the event will open with an immersive drama performance from The Regent Drama Academy. The audience will stand with the characters, listen to the words of the survivors of the atrocity and weave between corridors to encounter soundscapes from characters. Laura Stacey: "The story of Lidice is one which the people of Stoke-On-Trent and Staffordshire should be immensely proud of. School groups, dance groups and community groups are coming together to share their creativity re-telling the story of a very important part of history. The story has been lost before we want to make sure that it remains strong in our heritage. We want to connect as many schools and community groups to the story as we can." The Drama performance first originated in February 2014 with The Regent Drama Academy and took its audience on an immersive site specific journey around the Victoria Hall. The project was devised by the young cast looking at books and accounts of the story. They also spoke to Alan and Cheryl Gerrad who re-discovered the story back in 2010. The performance begins with two people standing in their pyjamas reading from a book just like Alan and Cheryl did one sunny Sunday Morning. "Speaking to Alan and Cheryl was fantastic. They enabled the cast to get a real insight into the story and also what it means in today's society. It is the ?realness' which connects people to the story of Lidice and also connecting the young cast to it. In every direction the story is made up of real, ordinary people who the cast and the audience can relate to. It is this realness that makes the story ever more poignant and important."