https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tettC0Tibc

What happens when the theatres close, festivals get cancelled and the cinemas are left empty? We look to those we love, have loved and want to love.

Isolation Ensemble shares honest words of wisdom and truthful silly stories of those navigating their way through the varying stages of relationships. One or two might remind you of yourself.

In response to the 2.6 Challenge set up in April to help save UK charities, Abbie Riddell, emerging theatre director and arts facilitator, decided to rise to the challenge of creating a new piece of online theatre with a cast of twenty-six actors.

Isolation Ensemble is a short film of twenty-six different short scenes which have been devised by the company using a combination of timely verbatim extracts and eloquent new writing. All of the work has been created during lockdown and via online video platforms.

The project aims to raise urgent funds for four regional arts organisations across the country including Belgrade Theatre (Coventry).

Belgrade Theatre sits at the heart of the Midlands theatre scene producing work that gives unheard voices a platform and is continually pushing the boundaries of storytelling in theatre. Belgrade Theatre is known for it's incredible outreach work within local communities and being arms wide open for developing artists. We are so excited to see all the future work developed there, especially with Coventry being named the City of Culture for 2021. Isolation Ensemble are excited to be giving back to the UK arts sector through fundraising.

Charitable donations to regional theatres across the UK are more important than ever to ensure their survival as a result of the recent global pandemic. It is heartbreaking for the entire arts community to see that many theatres have already gone into administration or have been forced to make redundancies due to a significant drop in income over the past few months. All donations will be directly paid to the organisations via JustGiving.

The cast includes Sophie Powles (ITV’s Emmerdale), Lucy Aarden (HBO’s Game of Thrones) and Rianna Ash (National Theatre’s War Horse) as well as recent acting graduates.

Isolation Ensemble will be launched on YouTube on Monday 6th July 2020 at 6pm, while more information about the project can be found on Twitter using #IsolationEnsemble.

#SaveTheArts