I had a nice surprise the other day. A play I’d written for a Greenwich Theatre short play writing competition has been chosen to be directed, read and posted online by the theatre. You can see it…. here (15 mins)
It has always been an ambition of mine to write a play and see it performed. I’m hopeful that when the Covid cloud lifts, the theatre perform it live on stage (as nice as it is to see it performed, using professional actors and a professional producer, on YouTube).
The competition was part of the Greenwich Connects initiative run by the theatre to help the community and theatre industry through lockdown. I entered it during the dark days of early lockdown.
The subject matter is totally influenced by that time. Set in the future, a couple struggle with the effect of Covid 1 on their lives and consider (or at least he does) a new way to make money.
It’s also influenced a lot by the book Homo Deus. I owe that book for double inspiration because it also gave me an angle for a 2018 (BC) Media Research Conference paper
Watching the play I’m reminded of how those first few days of lockdown felt.
A freelance project had just come to an end and others in the pipeline suddenly dried up. Nobody was booking research, consumer behaviour suddenly ceased. Media was holding its breath and furloughing staff. Ad revenues were diving. The daily commute, with its commuter papers and outdoor advertising had simply stopped.
So, aside from homeschooling, I threw myself into writing this play and running every day (I covered well over 200 miles during lockdown). In month two I pivoted to SaaS, working intensely on a project for Slido.
If you’d told me in month one that the play would be chosen and published and that from month two I’d be working all the hours again, I’d have been amazed.
Anyway, enjoy the play if you view. As I said to my mum, sorry about the swearing!
Neil Sharman 