When Grief came to stay - an online arts project

Aim

5 video shorts, collaborating with artists from a range of forms, that use a playful approach to look at the long term experience of grief.

What if grief had a face. What would that face look like? What if it had a body and arms and legs and a personality and a terrible sense of comic timing? What if no one could see them but you? And what if they came to stay? 

“Daisy is 32 years old. She has a job, and a flat, and a season ticket for south west trains. She also has an invisible guy called Ian who showed up after her mum died last year and won’t leave her alone. He keeps trying to get her attention. It’s really inconvenient.”

She Said Jump are creating a series of shorts, looking at grief and what it means to make space for it. The series will build on ideas developed for their live show, 'Daisy Doesn't Panic' (working title), and draw material from a number of interviews conducted as part of the research for this project in 2019. Maisie Whitehead and Malik Ibheis (She Said Jump), in consultation with bereavement counsellor Becca Tomlinson, will collaborate with artists from a diverse range of disciplines to commission a series of creative works on the theme of grief personified, delivered online through 5 video shorts, that bring to life people’s experiences of bereavement. 

The videos will be curated online as a stand alone project, as well as eventually accompanying the live show, Daisy Doesn’t Panic (working title), a show about grief with aerial circus and clown, development for which has currently been put on hold due to COVID-19.

We’re crowdfunding to raise funds to pay artist and production fees, and to help us reach a wide audience with the work. We feel strongly that the subject matter of our work is more relevant now than ever. We need to connect with one another, and to address the loneliness - exacerbated enormously by the current situation - and 'otherness' that so often accompanies what is already an overwhelmingly huge and life-changing experience. While the live theatre industry is still struggling to find a way forward in a COVID-19 world, we're doing all we can to find other ways to reach audiences, to continue to sustain our work and to make a positive contribution at this time.

Collaborating artists include... 

...illustrator Anna Millais, whose work explores themes of death, grief, the human condition and planes of existence. Anna was longlisted for the Folio Society/House of Illustration Book Illustration Competition in 2018 whilst studying for an MA at Camberwell College of Arts.

..actor and writer Lizzie Muncey, who most recently appeared in a leading role in the West End production of Nigel Slater's Toast. She is also a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme, and her play Superhero Snail Boy toured nationally to theatres and schools. It explores themes of bereavement, mental health and loneliness as it affects young people.

...singer/songwriter Hattie Whitehead, whose songwriting explores themes of grief and mental health. Hattie has appeared at festivals including Glastonbury, Latitude and Cambridge Folk Festival. She won third prize in the Glastonbury Unsigned competition in 2016 and features on the original soundtrack to new Apple TV series Trying, composed by Elbow’s Guy Garvey.

Becca Tomlinson is a counsellor specialising in grief and bereavement. She is a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and holds a Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling and a Level 2 qualification in Specialist Bereavement Care. She works with the NHS through The Awareness Centre and volunteers with Cruse Bereavement Care, as well as sitting on the board for their Lambeth branch. She works with an integrated style, combining both Person-Centred and Psychodynamic approaches. Becca will consult on thematic elements of the project and its presentation.

She Said Jump are a physical theatre company who create stories using original aerial equipment and drawing on theatre clown, circus, dance, mime and puppetry. We are interested in uncovering the unseen goings on in the hearts and minds of humans, and in encouraging connection and understanding through our work and our creative process.

She Said Jump have been mentored by multi-award winning and internationally celebrated clown Angela de Castro, leading circus theatre company Ockham’s Razor and renowned cross-disciplinary company Fevered Sleep. Our work has been supported by Arts Council England, Jacksons Lane Theatre (the home of contemporary circus theatre in the UK) and Flying Fantastic, London’s leading aerial fitness school. 

This project successfully funded on 30th September 2020