With the current Covid crisis having made the arts adapt to alternative ways of reaching audiences, the number of productions that have been presented via online streaming has significantly increased. The digital sphere has offered a new way of accessing arts content, with online platforms becoming the go to place for live art. But how else can audiences be reached? New Perspectives have decided to take a nostalgic turn, creating a postcard drama with their new work Love from Cleethorpes.
A love story spanning over 30 years, Love from Cleethorpes begins to explore the meaningful relationship between David and Isla; lovers who initially met in 1987. Throughout the week, in real time, recipients receive a postcard updating all on David and Isla’s current relationship status. With a total of 6 postcards, we read on as the two talk back and forth throughout the decades – offering an insight into what they’re up to, how they feel and their wanting to know what the other is up to.
An inventive way of communicating the character’s outlooks, Love from Cleethorpes operates as a time machine; not only in terms of the nostalgic postcard format but also in terms of how postcards jump from now, to 1987, to 1990, to 1989. We’re constantly reminded of the unpredictability of love and relationships in general; one moment everything is fine, the next, not. We’re left wondering what will follow next, contributing to us needing to know what happens next. There’s a distance in the sense of us not necessarily witnessing who these characters are, it’s as if we’re intruding on these brief yet personal and poignant conversations – these characters distant strangers. However there’s a connect, as you begin to invest in their story and build up your very own idea of who they are. A creative response to our current new normal.
Review written by Lucy Basaba.
Love from Cleethorpes was a postcard series delivered throughout a week in August. To find out more about New Perspectives, visit here…
Leave a Comment