45NORTH ANNOUNCES SECOND SEASON OF WRITTEN ON THE WAVES
With the final audio play of season one, CUNCH, to be released on 20 May, 45North today announces the second season of the audio play series Written on the Waves.The new season will consist of six world première audio plays released fortnightly, beginning with Lifted – a trilogy of short audio pieces from writers Tabby Lamb, Danusia Samal and Eva Scott released on 27 May, and followed by pieces from Tabby Lamb, Dessa, Ava Wong Davies, Nicola T. Chang, and Abi Zakarian. The first series of Written on the Waves has been streamed over 5,500 times from 40 countries so far and is available via www.forty-fivenorth.com/writtenonthewaves.
Jessica Rose McVay, Creative Director of 45North, said today, “I am thrilled that as we return to live work, 45North is also continuing our audio work and expanding how we engage with our audience. These pieces reflect the world we are coming out of in 2021, with challenges and hope for what’s ahead.”
Emily Carewe, Creative Producer for Theatre at 45North, also commented, “The opportunity to continue working with incredible creatives through the second season of Written on the Waves is thrilling. This last year has proven to us the capacity artists have to push the boundaries of form and create new audience experiences, and we look forward to encouraging audiences to interact with these pieces in varied and immersive ways.”
The full line-up for Written on the Waves season two is:
- Lifted
Released: 27 May 2021
A trilogy of short audio pieces: T4T, written by Tabby Lamb and performed by Lamb and Zachary Hing; Busking It, written and performed by Danusia Samal; and Dawn’t Stop Believing written and performed by Eva Scott. Directed by Jessica Rose McVay
- Darling
Released: 10 June 2021
Written by Tabby Lamb, and directed by Jo Tyabji
Starring David Hoyle
- On the Line
Released: 25 June 2021
Written by Dessa, and directed by Jessica Rose McVay
Starring Emily Carewe, Dessa, and Ross O’Donnellan
- Rime of the Second Sister
Released: 8 July 2021
Written by Ava Wong Davies, and directed by Jessica Rose McVay
- Moon Cake
Released: 22 July 2021
Created by Sound Designer Nicola T. Chang, with text by Isobella Leung
- Found
Released: 5 August 2021
Written by Abi Zakarian
Further casting and creatives to be announced.
Written on the Waves was created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, where many creative possibilities ceased, unceremoniously and indefinitely. The first season was a celebration of storytelling featuring eight world première audio plays exploring a wide range of ideas and probing new forms, with casts including Adjoa Andoh, Sharon D. Clarke, Nicola Coughlan, Katherine Parkinson and Olivia Williams. Season two will continue this, but with a deeper emphasis on how listeners can interact with the audio form – from choose your own adventure fantasy, to interactive illustrations and immersive sound experiences.
27 MAY
LIFTED
T4T
Written by Tabby Lamb
Cast: Zachary Hing, Tabby Lamb
Love, Gender and Myspace all collide in this short Rom-Com from Tabby Lamb, which explores what it was like to date as a Trans Person growing up in the early days of the internet.
Busking It
Written and performed by Danusia Samal
Inspired by a decade of singing on the tube, Busking It is a short lyrical piece adapted from Danusia Samal’s stage play of the same name. It looks at a shy teenager’s first step into finding her voice, and discovering the sounds of London around her. There are so many stories in this city – if you just stop and listen.
Dawn’t Stop Believing
Written and performed by Eva Scott
Dawn Micklethwaite is an eternally optimistic football fan from Sheffield. In Dawn’t Stop Believing she uses her podcast, ‘Dawn’s Big Footy Thoughts’, to interrogate the philosophical nature of joy and happiness and how these things only really exist in a happy counter-balance with misery and disappointment. And if being a devoted football fan can’t teach you this profound lesson, nothing will.
Directed by Jessica Rose McVay; Sound design and editing by Anna Clock
Tabby Lamb is a non-binary writer and performer based in East London. Their debut solo show SINCE U BEEN GONE, which Lamb wrote and performed, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019.
Lamb is an artistic associate for the Sky Arts Bursary at Stratford East, an associate writer with Middle Child, on attachment at the Oxford Playhouse via their Playhouse Playmaker Scheme 2021, and is developing new work on the Wild Child’s Oli Lansley mentor scheme, mentored by Sarah Solemani. They have previously been part of the Soho Theatre Writers Lab and the LGBTQ Arts Review #RaisingOurVoices scheme for queer and trans writers. Current commissions include the Unicorn Theatre, The Place, Kilter and Pentabus.
Zachary Hing’s previous theatre credits include Living Newspaper: Edition 2, Pah-La (Royal Court Theatre), Them! (National Theatre Scotland), Forgotten (Theatre Royal Plymouth, Arcola Theatre), and Why Is The Sky Blue? (Southwark Playhouse). Hing is making their television debut in the upcoming series Halo.
Danusia Samal is an actress, writer and singer from London. As a writer, Samal’s theatre credits include Busking It, Out of Sorts (winner of 2019 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award), Decolonising History, Conditionally, Langthorne Stories, and Las Americas Above, and for television, Gangs of London. Her acting credits include Noah & The Peacock (Nottingham Playhouse), Rutherford and Son (Sheffield Crucible), B, How to Hold Your Breath (Royal Court Theatre), The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Rover (RSC), The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead (ETT, Liverpool Everyman). Samal is an alumni of the BBC’s TV Drama Writers Programme, and is currently under commission with Soho Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Radio 4 and BBC Three.
Eva Scott is an actor, writer and theatre maker from Sheffield. She was a finalist for the BBC’s ‘Caroline Aherne Bursary for Funny Northern Women’ in 2018. More recently she was chosen to be one of the BBC’s 16 writers for their Comedy Room 2019/20. Scott is currently developing a sitcom with BBC Studios, writing her first play commissioned by 45North, and is working with the theatre company Maude, devising their debut show Penny.
10 JUNE
DARLING
Written by Tabby Lamb
Directed by Jo Tyabji; Dialogue Editing by Laura Howard; Sound Design and Editing by Mwen
Cast: David Hoyle
An ode to magic, adventures and messy queerness. Darling examines what it’s really like growing up inspired by the boy who never did. If dying is an awfully big adventure, wait ‘til you see what it’s like to really live your truth.
David Hoyle is a performance artist. He came to prominence with his character The Divine David, appearing in Comedy Nation, The Divine David Presents, and The Divine David Heals. As himself, Hoyle has performed at Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Soho Theatre, Chelsea Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Victoria & Albert Museum. His television credits include Nathan Barley.
Jo Tyabji is a director and writer. Recent directing credits include audio plays Communion, Said Out Loud, and In Real Life, and for stage [The Cobbled Streets of Geneva] (VAULT Festival), Surge (The Albany) My Name Is My Own, What’s Far is Near (Southbank Centre) and lip-sync drag polemic Motherland. They are Associate Director at Milk Presents and founder of Graphite & Diamond.
25 JUNE
On the Line
Written by Dessa
Directed by Jessica Rose McVay; Sound Design and Editing by Tony Gayle
Cast: Emily Carewe (Misty), Dessa (Gina), Ross O’Donnellan (Simon)
Sometimes it’s hard to tell what sort of love you’re in—and who else might be in it with you. In the course of one late-night phone call, long-time friends Gina and Simon—both clever, quick, and charismatic—talk sex and sacrifice, love and loneliness. And in an effort to clarify the terms of human attachment, they risk crossing lines that are hard to uncross.
Suggested listener provisions:
A beverage
A door frame
A couple band-aids (plasters, for UK listeners).
Good luck.
Dessa is a rapper, singer, and writer. As a writer, she’s been published by The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, and published a memoir-in-essays, My Own Devices,in addition to two literary collections. Dessa is also the host of Deeply Human, a podcast created by the BBC and American Public Media. As a musician, she has performed at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, recorded a live album with the GRAMMY-award winning Minnesota Orchestra, a contribution to the #1 album The Hamilton Mixtape, and top-200 entries on the Billboard charts.
Emily Carewe plays Misty. Her previous acting credits include Miracle on 34th Street (Bridge House Theatre), ABBAphonic (Royal Albert Hall, Russian tour), audio plays The Ballalloes, The Gnats (Sony Germany), and audiobooks Star Cops: Mother Earth Part 2, Lady Christina (Big Finish).
Ross O’Donnellan plays Simon. His previous theatre credits include Julius Caesar (Bristol Old Vic), Crave (The Wardrobe Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe), and Treasure Island (Redgrave Theatre).
Jessica Rose McVay is Creative Director and CEO of 45North. Her previous credits include (un)written (un)heard (Fringe World Festival – Fringe World Dance and Physical Theatre Award 2020), Post-Mortem (Holden Streets Theatre/The Blue Room Theatre/The Space), Leave A Message (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Vaults Festival), The Testament of Mary (Open Eye Figure Theatre), and The Giant Pacific Octopus Maritime School (Written on the Waves).
8 JULY
RIME OF THE SECOND SISTER
Written by Ava Wong Davies
Directed by Jessica Rose McVay
It’s just another summer holiday morning for sisters Eliza and Riley. Get up, get dressed, fight a dragon, have breakfast, hide from a witch, go to the shop, save the lost maiden — but whatever you do, don’t ask where Mum’s gone.
Rime of the Second Sister is a choose your own adventure audio experiment that asks whether or not stories can save us.
Ava Wong Davies is a writer from London. She is a freelance theatre critic for The Independent, Exeunt Magazine, and The Stage. As a playwright, she has been shortlisted for the Verity Bargate and Tony Craze awards, and is an alumnus of the Royal Court Writers’ Group, the Bush Emerging Writers Group, and Soho Writers Lab.
22 JULY
MOON CAKE
Created by Nicola T. Chang
With text by Isabella Leung
Ever wondered what the world sounds like through the perspective of a mooncake? Mooncake takes listeners through an immersive audio journey across time, letting us eavesdrop on conversations and events around this much-loved delicacy every full moon, every year.
Nicola T. Chang is a composer and sound designer for stage and screen. She is a member of the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 cohort (composer/sound designer), BFI x BAFTA Crew (film composer) and a composer /musical director attached to British Youth Music Theatre UK. She was the co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (audio design) with Francesca Amewudah-Rivers in 2021.
Isabella Leung is a bilingual actor and writer, born and raised in Hong Kong and based in the UK. As a actor and writer, her theatre credits include Freedom Hi 自由閪 (Papergang Theatre), and Tiananmen 30 (Omnibus Theatre); and as an actor,A Game Not Lost (The Space), and Dante’s In-Furlough (The Vaults).
5 AUGUST
FOUND
Written by Abi Zakarian
Ziazan is lost.
The world has suddenly got a lot smaller, and the walls are closing in.
She’s avoiding people. She’s avoiding work. And she’s especially avoiding the Box of Things that’s sitting in the hallway of her tiny flat, waiting to be unpacked.
Nothing makes sense anymore.
This is Ziazan’s blog. Just something she started to help her chart the days; to navigate this painful ocean she’s adrift on. As she fills it with her innermost thoughts she starts to venture a little further each day, rediscovering her world and the people in it. Who knows what, and who, she might find?
An ambitious play about loss, grief and rediscovering the world (and yourself) in the process.
Abi Zakarian is an award-winning British-Armenian playwright based in London. Her plays include What The Thames Told Me, Perfect Myth Allegory, Tatha Wakes Up From A Very Long Sleep, Clapped, I Am Karyan Ophidian, Enough, Fabric (winner of 2016 Fringe First Award), I Have A Mouth And I Will Scream (winner of the 2018 VAULT Festival People’s Choice Award), The Best Pies In London, This Is Not An Exit, LULU7, Swifter, Higher, Stronger, and A Thousand Yards. Zakarian co-wrote the concept album A Threshold, initially commissioned as the Brit School/Andrew Lloyd Webber Bridge Foundation musical for 2020. She was awarded an MGCFutures bursary in 2018 and is also the recipient of a Peggy Ramsay Foundation grant. She is currently developing Fabric for television and is under commission with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and 45North.