This weekend, our New Vic Borderlines team will be at the Potteries Chartist Festival in Burslem, sharing two pieces of work for audiences to enjoy.
Written by Lisa Blower, and created by the team behind our recent production of The Miner Birds, Blessing in Burslem is an interactive, one-woman play about belonging.
Blessing Miraculous Glenday is part of the Windrush generation. She has lived in Stoke-on-Trent for over 60 years working as a nurse. Widowed young and lonely, she has been invisible to the world until she answers an advert in The Sentinel for a life drawing class at the Burslem School of Art on a whim. This is a story about belonging. Of learning to love the body you have grown into and what it is to feel whole and truly seen.
The short story by Lisa Blower won the 2025 VS Pritchett Prize. At this year’s Chartist Festival, audiences are invited to experience a reading of the play that will weave together engaging storytelling, with paintings, created live by a group of artists during the performance. Lorna Laidlaw, who played Granny in the New Vic’s recent production of The Company of Wolves, will play Blessing in this story that pays homage to the invisible women’s stories of Stoke-on-Trent.
Blessing in Burslem will be performed at the Potteries Chartist Festival on Sunday 17 August 2025 at 12pm and 2.30pm in the Old Post Office back room, presented by New Vic Borderlines in partnership with Kwanzaa Collective and The Peoples’ Local History Association.
During the day, the Borderlines team are also inviting visitors to celebrate Stoke-on-Trent artist, poet and playwright Arthur Berry with A Pie, A Poem and A Portrait. Audiences can enjoy a performance, create their own piece of art and celebrate where they live in their own authentic style, inspired by Arthur Berry’s own ethos, in this engaging project.
The Potteries Chartist Festival will take place in Burslem on Sunday 17 August.