In 2017 the theater company Penned at the Margins created a multimedia production of Piers Plowman titled Fair Field. The performances took place at five different locations around Ledbury, beginning with an outdoor site-specific performance in the Malvern Hills. Then the play was staged in Shoreditch, London, which Penned at the Margins described as “London’s original suburb of sin.” The performances included theater, poetry, film, and music by “The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments.” “Fair Field” drew upon five key moments from the poem, with these titles: Will’s Vision, The Marriage of Lady Mede, The Confession of the Seven Sins, The Ploughing of the Half-Acre, and The Tower of Truth.
In conjunction with “Fair Field” the National Poetry Library created an exhibit about Piers Plowman where it displayed an original manuscript of the poem from 1400. It also commissioned two original art pieces by contemporary artists responding to Piers Plowman, a video installation by Larry Achiampong and a paper sculpture by Nicola Jedrzejczak. Also in celebration of Fair Field, the newspaper The Guardian produced a three-part series of podcasts interpreting Piers Plowman through voices, texts, and sounds.
