Tune in to @TheatreUncut on Facebook at 8pm this evening to watch BA English and Drama student Ed Larkin in the premiere of Bubble, a 45-minute online play about freedom of speech and online debate set on a university campus. The mode of performance and delivery sounds like it could have been created in response to social distancing, but this has been planned as an online play from the start.
BA English and Drama student, Ed Larkin
Director, Emma Callander, explains that in 2019 Theatre Uncut’s innovative approach has been to work digitally form the outset, and they approached a select number of university drama departments that “excited us in their programming, in the way they approached their work”. In the Drama Department we were delighted to collaborate, and Theatre Uncut were supported by Teaching Fellow Rebecca McCutcheon to put out a call for student performers.
Selected students were then directed over video call and filmed themselves, with the whole piece being edited together for the performance you will see today. Our very own Ed Larkin appears in the play, alongside a range of other actors and students from around the world.
Ed commented that, “Beginning this piece was quite daunting as the character was intense and it was my first experience with a fully established professional theatre company. However, as the process went on it became more and more enjoyable, I learnt new skills from professionals and the people I spent time working with were incredible. It was definitely a good thing I checked my student email.
“BUBBLE is very significant for theatre as it introduces a new online approach to sharing work to a broad audience across the world in a very quick and easy to manage method. Meanwhile, the message of the play itself is just as important, especially in the context of isolation currently happening, as it emphasises the problems but also the opportunities that are found when communicating on an online forum.”
The collaboration will also connect with our curriculum, with second years Theatre & Culture students taking part on an online workshop & Q&A with the director later this week, to support their forthcoming group performance projects. And if you would like to develop your own creative project based on Hurley’s brilliant play, the script will be available to download and use, royalty free, from Theatre Uncut’s website, for 1 months from March 23rd.
The performance of Bubble will can be viewed at any time online at Theatre Uncut’s website from 8pm on Monday 23rd March - www.theatreuncut.com/watch
