Experience the 2025 British Ceramics Biennial – after hours.

2 Oct 2025 at 5:30 – 9pm including The Queen’s Shoulders

Performance 1: 6pm – 7pm

Click here for tickets for the 6:00pm performance.

Performance 2: 7.45pm – 8.45pm

Click here for tickets for the 7:45pm performance. 

For one special evening, we open the doors late for an experience where history, performance and clay collide.

The Queen’s Shoulders

How a local woman came to feature in one of the most iconic images of the 20th century.

In 1964, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II sat for Staffordshire artist Arnold Machin, as he modelled the clay cameo for his iconic postage stamp image. However, Machin only sculpted the Queen’s head, and the Palace decided it needed something extra – shoulders! Machin asked a young Stoke-on-Trent woman, Angela, to sit for him as he modelled the monarch’s shoulders. Angela remained in the area, becoming a teacher and raising her family in the Staffordshire Moorlands. She was involved in local theatre groups and choirs throughout her life.

Originally commissioned for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, this new production celebrates Machin’s Stoke-on-Trent roots as part of the Stoke100 Centenary celebrations and brings you the extraordinary true story of how the local woman’s shoulders would become known throughout the world.

Directed by Polly Wain and featuring Ava Ralph as Angela, The Phoenix Singers bring this unique story to life with words by Victoria Brazier and music by Ashley Thompson.

You’ll never look at a stamp in the same way again.

For more details visit: www.phoenixsingersleek.co.uk and Facebook: phoenixsingersleek

Admission is free but, due to limited capacity, reservation is required.