The first of HighTide’s Love In The Time of Corona
monologues available TONIGHT from 5pm
From 5pm tonight you’ll be able to watch Jade Anouka (Last Christmas) perform Aisha Zia’s (No Guts No Heart No Glory) monologue and Katie Lyons (Manhunt) present Olivier Award nominee Morgan Lloyd Malcom’s work. These two monologues form part of HighTide’s Love In The Time
of Corona which will be available free of charge on HighTide’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
Filmed and edited through support from HighTide’s sponsor Lansons, one of the world’s leading reputation management companies, these monologues will be available for four weeks from release. Zia’s piece explores the chaos of modern urban life and the feeling of apocalypse which loomed even before the pandemic, while Morgan Lloyd Malcolm looks at being a new mum trapped at home with children, and how anyone can be enough at a time like this.
Three more monologues will be shared in the coming month; Sophie Melville (Bang) will take on Ben Weatherill’s (Jellyfish) piece which explores intergenerational relationships and reaching out with love to older relatives who are alone at this time. BAFTA nominee Dawn King’s monologue about living a social media life along with a real one, will be presented by Shobna Gulati (Coronation Street). The spoken word artist Debris Stevenson (Poet In Da Corner) will perform her own piece. All five of the writers of Love In The Time of Corona are currently developing full-length plays for Suba Das’s inaugural HighTide Festival in 2021.
The Love In The Time of Corona monologues are created as part of HighTide’s Lighthouse Programme of free, brand new projects and support for artists, audiences and communities, specifically created to bring light in the weeks ahead. The scripts will be available royalty free for actors and directors to make their own digital versions to be showcased on HighTide’s social media channels
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm comments, It’s been lovely to be a part of HighTide’s Lighthouse Programme. In a time where many of us are unsure about what the future holds, to be able to write and send some words out into the world has felt like a lifeline. It’s been hard to create amongst the panic of what’s going on but sitting quietly for a few hours and thinking about making a small piece of work for a brilliant actor has been a proper privilege and treat. I hope what we’ve all made gives people a few moments of respite and joy
Artistic Director of HighTide, Suba Das comments, Only a month ago we were making plans to announce new theatre pieces by Morgan and Aisha that would form part of my first HighTide Festival in 2021. We continue to press ahead with those plans but we’re now taking the opportunity to introduce our audiences in the East of England and all over the world to these two astonishing talents. As with the larger shows we will share next year, in these two pieces Morgan and Aisha ask questions of what it means to be a woman and a mother; what it is to wonder if there is too much noise in our society. We are proud to share a glimpse of the humanity and humour of two of the UK’s most exciting writers earlier than planned, and at a time when artists really can help us make some sense of what we’re all living through.
HighTide are the first NPO to launch such comprehensive support for the sector through their Lighthouse Programme, offering a range of programmes to help artists. Its strands reflect the values that sit at the heart of HighTide: to introduce audiences to new work that speaks to the times we live in by the most exciting and diverse writers in the UK; to support emerging writers on their journey; and to engage communities in their home region in Suffolk.