SUNNYMEAD COURT by Gemma Lawrence Directed by James Hillier
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Tristan Bates Theatre 22 September – 03 October 2020 Defibrillator, in association with The Actors Centre, present SUNNYMEAD COURT by Gemma Lawrence Directed by James Hillier Cast Gemma Lawrence Remmie Milner Sound Designer Max Pappenheim Lighting and Video Designer Will Monks Movement Director Chi-San Howard Assistant Director Ewa Dina Producer Jack Holden /TheActorsCentre actorscentre.co.uk theactorscentre_ 020 3841 6600 @theactorscentre 1A Tower Street, London WC2H 9NP The Actors Centre is a Registered Charity, No. 275934. WHO’D PUT ON A PLAY DURING A PANDEMIC? There are so many unknowns. Will anyone actually want to come? We’ve all been at home for six months and still have a season of Selling Sunset to watch. How can you possibly re- spond to what has happened in 2020? Black Lives Matter, Covid, a vacuum of leadership at the highest political levels, a world where human interaction is increasingly digital. Despite all the risks, it feels more necessary than ever to tell stories that will entertain and bring joy into the world. We need to create and can only do that by leaning into the changes. There are new rules. Let’s use them to fuel the work. Gemma Lawrence has written something spectacular and it’s a total thrill that she is appearing in her play alongside the ridicu- lously talented Remmie Milner. After ONLY one and half weeks of rehearsal and tech, here we are! But the journey of Sunnymead Court is not a typical one. The project started out in May, when Mitchell Reeve at The Actors Centre asked Defibrillator to create a socially distanced theatre experiment. Gemma, myself and Jack Holden were due to start work on another pro- ject at that time, so I called them. It’s probably fair to say we all said yes, we’d do this to- gether, but didn’t really believe it would happen. But then the idea began to take shape. What might a play look like now? First and foremost we settled on, in E.M. Forster’s words, the human need to “Only connect.” Over the last six months there stands a common story about how we have all lived without (and in some cases lost) friends, family, loved ones; alongside the challenges of forging new connections. It has also been a time where more than ever, for good or bad, we have been confronted with the challenge of connecting with ourselves. So that’s why you put on a play in a pandemic. Safely of course. It’s a chance to connect. Connect with imagination. With inspiring actors, creatives, friends and even perhaps our- selves. With a live audience in a theatre who all have this shared experience. Only Connect. James Hillier, Director DEFIBRILLATOR brings a spark of life to stories that have been forgotten or looking for creative re-invention. The company has a growing reputation for delivering inspiring and entertaining theatre in both conventional and non-theatre settings. www.defibrillatortheatre.com CONNECTION, ISOLATION & HOPE. When James first approached me about writing this play, the brief was both simple and seemingly impossible. How can we create a piece of Covid-secure theatre, that could serve as an experiment or blueprint for other theatre-makers going forward? How can we adapt to these new times? It is a challenge but more so an opportunity; a chance to reform theatre in more inclusive and positive ways, to build back better. There are the obvious physical limita- tions of social distancing, which were central to the piece in writing and obviously informed the rehearsal period. There is also the wonderful opportunity that theatre streaming present- ed to us during lockdown. Overnight, theatre became accessible to millions. With some (not all) barriers removed, British theatre found a whole new audience, and that wasn’t something we were prepared to lose with this production. Lockdown has been a terrible, frightening time for so many, and we wanted to offer a tonic to that. The intrepid theatre-goers returning to an auditorium for the first time should be given a slice of hope and come away feeling uplifted. There has been lots to celebrate in the way that communities have pulled together and the people who have forged new relationships with neighbours they may never have spoken to before. It was here that Marie and Stella were born. Two women now confined to their balconies and forced to look at their surround- ings in new ways. As a Londoner, I also wanted Sunnymead Court to be a celebration of place, finding joy in the small and everyday. Tiny moments and interactions that would ordi- narily have passed Marie and Stella by, now take on huge significance. Lockdown has been particularly hard for many LGBTQ+ people, lots of whom have had to move back to hostile family homes, forced back into the closet or subjected to homophobic abuse. As a queer writer, it felt important to explore this. Likewise, this time has thrown up or exacerbated many mental health issues, and it felt right that this was present within the story. They are two women, both struggling in this strange time, who find their way out through each other. The rehearsal period has been exciting and collaborative, with everyone working feverishly towards a shared goal: sharing this show with an audience. Everyone – the wonderful team at the Ac- tors Centre, our entire creative team, producer, cast – has pulled together and given their all. Navigating the restrictions and brac- ing every time the government announce something new has pre- sented its challenges, but more than anything the last few weeks have made me hopeful for theatre’s survival. The desire to reach out and tell a story will always prevail. This moment in the world is so unique and has been so particular to each individual; we want- ed to explore a tiny slice of what it means to a be a human right now. It is a piece about con- nection and isolation, and ultimately hope. It also features a few absolute tunes, so most of all, I hope it gets you dancing. Gemma Lawrence, Writer CAST GEMMA LAWRENCE REMMIE MILNER Writer & Marie Stella As a writer: straight vodka for Theatre503’s Remmie Milner trained at The Bristol Old Vic Rapid Write Response, Ribbons performed Theatre School. at Bloom Theatre’s SAPLINGS, and REWILD, performed at Omnibus Theatre and now be- TV credits include: Save Me & Save Me Too ing developed into a full-length piece as part (Sky Atlantic), A Christmas Carol (BBC), Phil- of the London Playwrights 2020 programme. ip K Dick’s Electric Dreams (Channel 4), Homecoming was commissioned for The Whitechapel (ITV), Trollied (Sky 1) and The Space’s Locked Down Looking Up season, Hour (BBC). and starred Patsy Ferran. Theatre credits include: Coriolanus & Chicken As an actor: Theatre includes Not Talking (Ar- Soup (Sheffield Crucible),Terror (Lyric Ham- cola Theatre); Nuclear (Young Vic); Wasted mersmith/Brisbane Arts Festival), The Winter’s (Orange Tree Theatre); As You Like It, Chil- Tale, To Kill A Mockingbird and Chip Shop dren of the Sun (National Theatre); All My The Musical (Octagon Theatre), Plastic Fig- Sons (Hong Kong Arts Festival); The Tem- urines (Box of Tricks), The Pier (Oxford Play- pest (Southwark Playhouse); Much Ado About house), Melody Loses Her Mojo (Liverpool Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Gaslight Playhouse), I Started A Fire (Arcola Theatre) (Salisbury Playhouse); Lee Harvey Oswald and Olympics Opening Ceremony: Pop Cul- (Finborough Theatre); Rough Cuts (Royal ture (Olympic Stadium). Court); The Cherry Orchard (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory/Rose Theatre Kingston). Radio credits include: Stone (BBC Radio 4). TV includes Silent Witness, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Clash of the Futures, Luther, Hol- by City, Misfits, 1066, The Bill, Casualty, Wak- ing the Dead, Time of Your Life, Stir It Up, All About George and Ahead of the Class. Film includes Frail, A Bunch of Amateurs and Enlightenment. Radio includes The Broken Word, Ambridge Extra, The Falcon and the Hawk and The Chess Girls (BBC Radio 4). Voice work includes Assassin’s Creed: Gold (Audible) and Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix). SUNNYMEAD COURT IN REHEARSAL Rehearsal photos © Harry Livingstone WHAT IT IS TO TRULY LIVE ‘We are transitioning from human experiences to digital experiences’ is the first line of this new play and yet, it seems infinitely recognisable. We have lived through a global shift in communica- tion; FaceTime, Texts, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Houseparty, and Zoom became our primary source of contact to anyone in the outside world, for a short while. We became afraid to speak to neighbours, knock on doors. The outside was dangerous. Pixilat- ed images of loved ones and switching Wi-Fi off and on at least twice a day became the norm. But then, we were allowed to meet. Bubbles were introduced. Being in a room with another person, contact, touch became a thing within our lives again and we were confronted with what lies at the crux of our humanity; connection via contact. Do you remember the first time you hugged some- one after three months of isolation? The first kiss. The first touch. Our bodies remembered what it was to feel again and a reappreciation was born. Sunnymead Court feels like an encapsulation of the journey we’ve been through together. A recog- nition of the worldwide change and shifts that came from having to spend time with self; having the minute yet detrimental habits that we all had magnified x1000, forcing us to go through a rebirth of self. A rebirth within our familial and romantic relationships. Fundamentally, we learnt that we aren’t robots who can rely solely on the virtual.