Instead of an original story with a loose historical setting, this tale is an adaptation of the 1864 novel “Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story” by Elizabeth Gaskell.
Last modified on Wed 28 Apr 2021 15.02 EDT
âYouâre on mute,â says Emilia to Giovanni, minutes into this episodic drama about a virtual romance in the early days of the first lockdown. It is by now such a well-worn line â in online theatre as in life â that it inspires an internal groan. But it is a rare trite note and this intelligent Zoom performance does more than reflect overfamiliar pandemic situations back at us. Even if playing it out on a split screen is not a particularly original scenario, it finds new terrain.
Key moments from last year form the backdrop to the relationship, including the announcement of the first Covid death in the UK and Boris Johnsonâs plea for Britons to âstay at homeâ, impeccably impersonated by Jon Culshaw.
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Alec Newman and Rachael Stirling in Clare Norburn s Love in Lockdown
- Credit: Robert Piwko
Crouch End playwright and musician Clare Norburn had just started a new relationship when the pandemic began.
And when lockdown hit, she was unable to see her boyfriend for nearly two months. It was incredibly sad and frustrating, she says. I met a new boyfriend at New Year and less than three months in, the lockdown happened and I didn t see him for eight weeks. We spoke every day but I cried when I couldn t seem him, not knowing when I would see him again. You weren t allowed then to bubble with another household, and watching those press conferences I d think what about people in relationships who don t live in the same household but want to see and touch each other?
Rachael Stirling and Alec Newman star in Love in the Lockdown
February 24, 2021 Last updated:
March 17, 2021
12:12 am By Admin
Leading actors of the stage and screen Rachael Stirling and Alec Newman are set to star in a new topical online play with music, due to be released in nine episodes on YouTube from 4th March to 23rd May 2021. Love In The Lockdown – pic credit Mike Blacket and Stuart McClymont
The drama, directed by Nicholas Renton (BAFTA-nominated Mrs Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters, Musketeers, A Room With A View, Lewis, Silent Witness), follows medieval musician Emilia (Stirling) and playwright Giovanni (Newman) in the early stages of an intense relationship, which starts with awkward early Zoom dates just before lockdown. Each short episode will be streamed in real-time on the anniversary of some of the key points in Lockdown 1.0. Comedian, Impressionist and Actor Jon Culshaw has a cameo as the voice of Boris Johnson in episode 3.