New play to be based on 1960s UFO sightings

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A theatre company is researching reports of UFO sightings in Stoke-on-Trent on 2 September 1967 for a forthcoming play.

Claybody Theatre said there were dozens of reported sightings of a flying saucer and bright lights in the skies above Bentilee.

The company’s artistic directors Conrad Nelson and Deborah McAndrew are now looking for stories about the incident.

They want locals to come forward with their memories of that night, as well as more general stories about life on the Bentilee estate today.

Ms McAndrew said she came across archive footage of the incident and found it fascinating.

“It’s riveting,” she said. “At first you’d think it was almost a spoof, it’s so specific to its time.

“A UFO is such an interesting thing, especially when it’s got multiple witnesses.”

Two days after the incident in Stoke-on-Trent, six saucers were found in the Isle of Sheppey.

For a time, members of the public, police and the Army believed alien spaceships had landed – until these were revealed to be a hoax by students.

Speaking about the unexplained incident in Bentilee, Ms McAndrew said: “I can’t find anyone to explain what it was. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a rational explanation.

“But it was the 1960s and there was space fever around. With the space race it was a hotbed.”

She said Bentilee was often the butt of people’s jokes – but she wanted to try to tell the story of what was experienced there in a different way.

She said the field where people say they saw the UFO land is pretty much unchanged and that she is open-minded about the responses she will receive.

The play’s working title is “Bright Lights Over Bentilee” and Ms McAndrew said it would be based in science-fiction but would likely weave in local influences.

“I’ve got some characters already starting to emerge,” she explained.

She added there was a significant Geordie population in the area at the time, because a lot of miners from the north-east of England came to work in the Berryhill pit.

It was possible, she said, there would be a character built round this in her play.

“There’s lots of interesting insights there, and a character is coming through now.

“The creative process can sound a bit pretentious, but gradually characters can take shape as you talk to people.”

Rehearsals will start over the summer and the play will open in September.

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