Nottingham-based theatre company Chronic Insanity is to release three productions online over a three-month period.
The company had begun a project to complete 12 shows in 12 months and was preparing for its first Edinburgh Fringe when COVID-19 struck. Now it has adapted some of those shows.
Nat Henderson and Joe Strickland who lead the company said, “we always try to push the boundaries of live performance and theatre. Being faced with the challenge of making digital work is something we’re very happy to rise to.
“We're so excited to be able to continue working with all our freelance artists and to show everyone something approaching the complete breadth of what digital theatre can be.
“These aren't just filmed or streamed live productions—this is digital theatre, about digital stories, made for digital platforms and communities.”
Conduit, written and directed by Joe Strickland, is an “interactive, hyper-technological performance focusing on a character that’s trying desperately to be with a separated loved one”. The piece asks whether it is right that grief should be used as a tool to drive innovation. It will be available from 29 June.
In Tennexa Freeman and Joe Strickland’s Myles Away, the live stream of a tech company's annual announcement gets subverted and eventually hijacked by its estranged founder to reveal murky secrets about the organisation. The performance looks at the relationship between capitalism and discrimination in the tech industry. It will be available from 27 July.
From 24 August the Edinburgh Fringe theatrical variety show 52 Souls by Nat Henderson and Joe Strickland will get a run, albeit online. Using a deck of cards, audience members tell their computer what cards they have picked. Each card delivers a short performance exploring death and mortality.
All shows will initially be available for a week. Further details can be found at the Chronic Insanity web site.