1 | f | Digital Festival Timetable | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | Please see below for the full timetable for our digital festival, running online from 17th to 31st August. Click on each Creative Team to find out more, and 'Where Can I Watch' for Links to view. | ||||||
3 | |||||||
4 | Group Number | Medium | Title | Creative Team | Synopsis | Performance Date | Where Can I Watch It |
5 | 9 | Live & digital | Parklife | Christopher Blackmore: Maker Abby Sumrie: Maker Alice Davies: Maker | A game about public space, green space and why we need it. A discussion about why we care and who we meet there. 21% of households in London have no garden, but 87% live within walking distance to a public park. During the months inside open public green space was (and still is) a lifeline. A safe place to see the sun, a friend or just sit. Now we ask where the parks came from, who runs them and what that means: could we do a better job? | 31-Aug | Zoom & VC Live Festival |
6 | 12 | Film | SINK UP | Martha Watson Allpress – Writer Rebecca Saffir– Writer Julene Robinson – Director Cora Kirk- Actor Libby Mai – Actor Producer – Naomi Chapman | When you’re in two separate places there’s only so much you can do in sync. Lil and Gemma only just managed to get it together and now they’re being forced apart. As Lil heads home from a difficult conversation with her parents, Gemma waits and hopes to connect. Fusing text, movement, film and sound, SINK UP explores the pain of distance, the sting of disapproval and the sweetness of coming to know one’s self. | 31-Aug | YouTube |
7 | 18 | Film | Symptoms May Include | Theo Harrison, Actor Ben SantaMaria, Writer Tom Shennan, Director Elizabeth Twells, Actor | Symptoms May Include is a film created and shot remotely by a group of artists in Epping, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Studland. It explores the wide-ranging effects of post-COVID syndrome through a deliberately ambiguous narrative, which reflects the complexity of the issues raised. A woman in Manchester fights to separate fantasy from reality as she deals with some of the syndrome’s symptoms. But how far are her symptoms also linked to pre-existing mental health issues, losing her girlfriend and job, or the broader social pressures of 2020s England? And would an escape from the city solve her problems? | 31-Aug | YouTube |
8 | 25 | Audio | Quinn | Yamine Dankwah- Writer, Director, Performer Maya Willcocks - Writer, Director, Performer, Ameena Hamid - Producer | “Mummy said I ask far too many questions…sooo I thought it would be good to ask you…” Starting in the early 90s, we follow Quinn, a girl, through her formative years where her identity is continuously interrogated, moulded and reformed. An audio visual piece which explores self expectation and what it means to grow up in an ever-changing world; we revisit her life every 5 years through her letters, treasured artefacts and social media posts. What has changed in 5 years? What, if anything, has stayed the same? And are we really the same person we start out being? | 31-Aug | YouTube |
9 | 2 | Live performance & Digital | Sway | Molly Sweeney and Alex Critoph - Writers Alessandra Davison - Director Angelina Chudi - Lead Performer | Mami Wata’s got a lesson for the sailors, a Mermaid has a fag on a rock and Naamah is sick of doing all the work on the ark. The forgotten women of the sea tell their stories. Sway is a live action Audio Play about the female spirits of the ocean, join us as we dive into the water to find the voices that history has drowned out in its depths. | 30-Aug | YouTube & VC Live Festival |
10 | 4 | Film | KAYFABE | Richard Hammarton, Director/Editor/Devisor/Actor. Jennifer Oliver, Writer/Devisor/Actor. Zoe Zak, Actor/Devisor. Matthew Durkan, Actor/Devisor. | With little work on the horizon, Kay and Fabe turn to the world of webcam. Offering intimacy recreation in exchange for money, they invite people to join the chat and vicariously experience tenderness in a time where very little exists. In order to boost business, KAYFABE are offering a night of free requests in order to promote their new venture. | 30-Aug | YouTube Live at 5pm |
11 | 32 | Film | Invasion | Creator and Conception: Gisele Edwards Creator and Editor/Director: Allen Charlton | In 1881, an amateur botanist Augustine Henry left Britain to join the China Customs Service. Posted to Hubei, near Wuhan, he collected plants to send home to Kew Gardens. One was Buddleja Davidii which, once marketed and planted in Britain's gardens for its blooms, went viral as each plant's million seeds took flight in spring transforming waste ground nationwide into a purple thatch. It was hated as an invasive species, and even today clogs the nation's railway corridors. But with WW2 bombsites transformed from depressing eyesores into rashes of colour, the public's relationship with Buddleja changed. Today, it competes in the eyes of many for the title of Britain's national flower. Gisele's slow-motion meditation on trans-plants transformation from nemeses to national treasures is a viral elegy. | 30-Aug | YouTube |
12 | 22 | Digital Theatre | I'm Sorry | Creator/Performer Jenni Jackson Creator/Performer Simone French Creator/Performer Tom Halls Creator/Dramaturg Julia Levai | I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to make you cry, but tonight I’m cleaning out my closet. I don’t know why I did the things I did, I don’t know why I said the things I said. Words are like weapons, they wound sometimes. I was such a fool, I didn’t know love could be so cruel. Sorry seems to be the hardest word… In a world where it pays to be unapologetic, do you have something you need to apologise for? | 30-Aug | YouTube |
13 | 1 | Film | This Flag | Kemi-Bo Jacobs, Writer Sumerah Srivastav, Director & Producer Rhoda Ofori-Attah, Actress | THIS FLAG explores the nature of identity and belonging for those living in parts of the world where they are othered. It also explores the negative impact that both physical and psychological isolation can have on the individual. | 29-Aug | YouTube |
14 | 20 | Digtital Theatre | HINGES | Christina Fulcher, Movement Director Hannah Moss, Physical Theatre Actor Corinna Marlowe, Actor Charles Douglas, Director/Writer | Lucy and Mary have both lost something dear to them and are struggling to cope without it. When their worlds fall apart, we witness them adjust to a ‘new normal’ through a series of confessions, and hard hitting conversations. ‘Hinges’ is an honest portrayal of grief, loneliness and coping in a time of uncertainty as we move into the magic of the new normal. | 29-Aug | YouTube |
15 | 29 | Digital Theatre | Your Connection Is Unstable | Khairika Al Sinani - Writer & Performer Melissa Holston - Director & Editor Lucy McIlgorm - Performer Benedict Chambers - Performer | When government legislation dictates that we all have to stay at home, what happens to romantic relationships? YOUR CONNECTION IS UNSTABLE explores the challenges facing a couple during lockdown in an interactive adventure with the viewer choosing the direction of Josh and Paisley's date. A pre-recorded digital drama including scenes which some viewers may find disturbing. | 28-Aug | Play out on Eko.com |
16 | 14 | Film | Under The Influence | CAST Aria: Hannah Paybarah Sara: Issy Flower Directed by: Antonia Georgieva Written by: Issy Flower, Antonia Georgieva, Hannah Paybarah | Aria and Sarah come from very different worlds but their mutual connection stems from a common motive: being at the top of their game. Lockdown’s hit everyone differently, and influencer Sarah thinks she can get a blog feature out of it. Aria, an actor stuck in quarantine, is desperate for exposure. When the two meet, their misconceptions about one another flare up and reveal the truth: that life can be hollow wherever you look. UNDER THE INFLUENCE explores the gaps between perception and reality. A zoom in on what happens after the ‘Zoom’ meeting ends, this film looks at the unfounded anxieties with which we confront the world, the unending struggle to present a perfect life online and the reality hidden behind the façade. | 28-Aug | YouTube |
17 | 21 | Live & digital theatre | Brick | Charlotte Blandford, Actor Hannah Rosen, Actor Jessica Bickel-Barlow, Director Olivia Munk, Writer | though Julian of Norwich survived the Black Death, she continues to be plagued by signs from God. fed up with her responsibilities, she turns to the Church and applies to be the new anchoress - a person entombed in the bowels of the church to live an isolated life of devotion and contemplation. but when Margery Kemp, a fellow female mystic, shows up during her trial run, Julian is forced to confront her decision: is a life of independence inside a cell worth giving up the undepredictibility of the world outside? | 28-Aug | YouTube & VC Live Festival |
18 | 19 | Digital Theatre | The HIIT | Julie Tsang,Writer Sibylla Archdale Kalid, Director; Alex Bull, Performer | Grab your leggings and join Alex for a dynamic HIIT class for beginners (we're all beginners) to target body and mind. 5 reps of 5 exercises - it's as simple as that! (Is it?) This class will tone your muscles, boost your mood and improve your sleep. Can you handle it? Can you? A fast, challenging and energetic workout about grief. | 28-Aug | YouTube Premiere, 5pm |
19 | 10 | Film | Genetic Beauty | Sabrina Richmond- Co-writer/ Performer Samantha Richmond- Co-writer Carly McCann = Performer Stephanie Stephens - Performer | We see the suffering, we feel bad about the suffering, we do something - dial “0800-doing-good” (0800-36464-4663). Raising money for charity is an eye, to heart, to wallet equation. No one does the annual telethon like these two news anchors, who know that money is best raised in a vulgar contest of which cause can garner the most pity. But this year these two women who've been doing the annual telethon fundraiser for needy causes are about to have a very public fallout over a disability very personal to one of them. They will have to take sides for the first time in their friendship, professional careers and perhaps their lives. | 27-Aug | YouTube Live at 7pm |
20 | 13 | Digital performance | [INSERT THOUGHT] | Emma Dawson (writer/maker), Elana Binysh (writer/maker), Stephanie Fuller (writer/maker) | A show about wearing your best velvet backless dress, tripping over and smashing your head open on the steps, except you didn’t really - you were just walking to the post office on a Friday morning to buy some envelopes. Because what is reality anyway? Halfway between a sweeping Hollywood movie and a neurotic fever dream, [INSERT THOUGHT] is an exploration of the thoughts we can’t control. We’ll play out your worst nightmares and your greatest fantasies, all whilst you drink your tea. | 27-Aug | YouTube |
21 | 6 | Live performance & Digital | Seeds | Aisling Caffrey (Writer) Ben Caplan (Director/Actor) Mitesh Soni (Actor) Lauren Carse (Actor/ Assistant Writer) | A relationship begins. One rarely thinks before speaking at all, whereas the other? There's this voice that prevents them from truly opening up... but what is it? Who is it? When they both receive mysterious seeds through the post, there is a nationwide call for cautiousness over spontaneity. To plant the seeds or not plant the seeds...because what will they grow in to? Follow our couple's conflicting approaches to the danger highlight their fundamental differences as people, and the voice's identity is not what it originally seemed... | 26-Aug | YouTube & VC Live Festival |
22 | 23 | Digital Theatre | Found Missing | Created and devised by: Ellie Zeegen, Performer and Writer Alexandra Donnachie, Performer and Writer Kate Donnachie, Performer, Writer and Sound Director | Inspired by group member Ellie Zeegen’s participation in the Refuge 62 Mile Walking Challenge, Found Missing is a work-in-progress audio journey. It is our group’s response to the reports of a huge increase in cases of domestic violence across the country throughout the global pandemic. The project uses sound blended by Kate Donnachie and the musicality of voices provided by the ensemble to dissect the mystery of a missing woman through the words and perceptions of neighbours and those who know her in the weeks following the ease of the UK government’s lockdown rules. | 26-Aug | Get involved by emailing: found.missing@outlook.com |
23 | 5 | Film | Two Under Two | Melina Theocharidou Actor Onzur Cifci Writer/Actor Lucy Hayward Writer Nadia Papachronopoulou Director Tassa Deparis Writer | A short film exploring motherhood, womanhood and friendship in lockdown. | 25-Aug | YouTube |
24 | 16 | Film | Whole | Ruth Anna Phillips, Director Sarah Connors, Writer Polly Frame, Performer Carolyn Coleman, Performer | Lockdown has eased. The hairdressers are open. Two teachers, from the same school, find themselves in the same salon at the same time. But they couldn’t be more different. What they share is how their world seems them. One is childless, the other childfree. Assumptions and judgement are things they both encounter on a daily basis. Whole is a story about grief, empowerment and how two women reclaim their status in the world . | 25-Aug | YouTube |
25 | 24 | Audio-Visual | Alright | Grace O'Keefe, Writer, Sasha Alexis, Actor, Tom Crowhurst, Actor, Theodor Sprirdon, Director. | Alright is an audio-visual journey through your senses and emotions. In this remotely site-specific piece of digital theatre, it’s just you and me and me and you. All you need for this sensory adventure is a viewing device (either a phone or laptop) and a pair of headphones. In a world where nothing is certain, take ten minutes to be assured that everything will be alright. | 24-Aug | YouTube |
26 | 7 | Film | Making (non)Sense of it All | Jacqueline Rose Ezel Doruk Raphael Von Blumenthal Videographer/Editor: Markella Sirri | Nobody asked for this. But here we are, and there you are. Trying to (re)define our place in the new (ab)normal. So where do we begin to understand what life is like now? How did we manage to share an emotional experience while physically apart? Borrowing lenses and voices that interweave with our own collective experience to question what connects us, what we have shared, and how we are navigating the new spaces to emerge from this nightmarish dream (or dreamy nightmare) we invite our audience, everybody and nobody to join us to make (non)sense of it all. | 23-Aug | YouTube |
27 | 11 | Film | You're Not Listening | Megan Farquhar - Performer Mark Fenton - Writer Lotti Sofia - Performer Anne-Christelle Zanzen - Director | Being torn apart by their parents divorce, two sisters try and reconnect. A short film about how memories are rewritten and how we need to be loved in our most difficult moments. | 23-Aug | YouTube |
28 | 8 | Digital Theatre | What He Would Have Wanted | Malachi Lawless - Writer Camila Robinson - Script Editor/Jess Paula Brett - Director/Gina Phoebe Frances Brown - Director/Sophie | Three sisters grieve for their father, but due to rigid Coronavirus restrictions only two of them can attend the funeral. As they struggle with past traumas, old insecurities, and tadpoles in the swimming pool, what is the best way to make an impossible decision? Exploring the ways old relationships navigate new landscapes, "What He Would Have Wanted" takes a candid and cheeky look at one version of an increasingly common story in today’s digital age – one that redefines familial status, challenges our definition of connection, and reflects on what it is to love a family. | 22-Aug | YouTube |
29 | 30 | Digital Theatre | And We Are Live | Created by Gemma Murray, Charlie Kenber, Rachelle Grubb and Gethin Alderman | This is an advertisement from: London Digi Tours! Sit down - for a walking tour! The upside to a pandemic surely peaks at experiencing a mediocre walking tour without even leaving your sofa. What could be better? Join our failed actors attempting not to be family disappointments as they turn tour guides and take you onto the streets of London. They’ve lost all their other work. Will they lose these jobs too? Will you learn anything? Might you see a damp pigeon? Do they even know the route? Don’t miss out on this thrilling experience! Join us at London Digi Tours today. | 22-Aug | YouTube |
30 | 17 | Digital Theatre | Refund, Regret, Replace | Aida Rocci - co-creator/performer Carla Keen - co-creator/performer Constanza Ruff - co-creator/performer | What do you regret? At what cost would you take it back? This short piece prompts us to question and explore our ability, or inability, to take responsibility for our actions, and the cost that carries forward in our lives. | 21-Aug | Zoom |
31 | 28 | Film | Perspectives | Writer: Anna Pellegrini Director: Ellie Hurt Performed by: Olivia Dodd and Priyank Morjaria | When an incident happens in the street, the significance of the consequences starts to unravel. Perspectives focuses on the narration of one event from two different points of view. Through this formal device the piece explores the functionality of language as a conveyor of meaning which can be shaped to empower the speaker. Imagined in a future post-pandemic world and playing with various digital formats, the film also offers and insight on contemporary communication and its consequent linguistic simplification. The question that arises from the characters’ discourse concerns the effectiveness and validity of their words, which can move against the emotions they try to express. | 20-Aug | YouTube |
32 | 33 | Film | Nola Rae and Jabberwocky | Nola Rae, Performer Matthew Ridout, Director Allen Charlton, Editor Rebekkah Sturge, Music | A peerless mime leaves her vow of silence to give voice to this classic poem by Lewis Carroll. The result is a burst of humour and creative genius. Nola Rae’s Jabberwocky is less recitation than dramatic performance; it is acting on an intimate scale but packs a punch. Brave adventurer, storyteller, naysayer, and grateful courtier all flit before us like shadows across the brow of Britain’s most famous mime. It is nonsense of the highest order. | 18-Aug | YouTube |
33 | 26 | Film | The Snake Bites the Hardest When it Knows It's Dying | Lora Krasteva, Director Lilia Nova, Performer/Deviser Victoria Valcheva, Performer/Deviser | In April 2018, Desislava Ivancheva and Biliana Petrova, mayor and deputy mayor of a major area of Sofia, were arrested in the city centre, in an operation worthy of Hollywood. They remained in the street for hours, chained and without access to a lawyer… or a glass of water. Their story of alleged bribery and local government corruption has galvanized the Bulgarian public and split the country. Who should be trusted: the State or those captured by it? The snake bites.. is a devised, documentary-style work in progress, shedding light on the surreal world of Bulgarian politics, current protests in the country and the strength of women’s words. | 17-Aug | YouTube |