Festival Stoke (here) is running a project called Festival Echoes - artists creating in lockdown. Festival Stoke have “asked six artists each to produce a piece of artistic work, each over a period of one month, which can be viewed online, within the guidelines and restrictions of lockdown.”
This is the first of a series, all of which is very exciting! The Festival Stoke website says :
“The film was made over the course of the month of May 2020. Martin made the film within the limitations of his house - filming on his phone, utilising scrap materials to build props and costumes and only using locations he could access without leaving the house. Martin said: "While on lockdown I've been rereading a lot of the forerunners to modern European theatre, Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus etc and I'd like to take influence from here to build the narrative and form of my film, using monologue, poetry, song and music. I intend to tell a family friendly story exploring the theme of 'Isolation' that will be at its core a comedy. The question I want to ask is: "What happens to the heroes when the heroic thing is to stay home" The film can be viewed on Youtube”
The project is supported by funding from Arts Council England
I highly recommend finding the twenty minutes it will take to watch this small bit of Lockdown Joy.
Simultaneously rooted in pop culture and Classics this surreal and funny film is something that in years to come will be a definitive and exposing look at what life can be like during a weird and unsettling period fo time. A sort of documentation of how creatives have dealt with lots of free time and time for thinking, reading, playing and making.
A definite must see! Good for all the family, it took me a second to settle in to the language to begin with because I have allowed my brain to get a little lazy, but, it was all familiar very quickly.
Check it out !
