In an exclusive two-part interview with actor and playwright Lolita Chakrabarti, Asian Voice discussed the future of funding post the pandemic and how one play taught her the possibility of reaching audiences sitting at home.
Below are some excerpts from Part II.
Going live without an audience
Lolita: The pandemic was horrible. But there were some really interesting things that came out of it because of dark moments. One thing that was clear, is that I did a play called Hymn which was on at the Almeida Theatre. It was at the time when the pandemic took hold again, and we either had to stop rehearsals because everybody shut everybody went home, or we were given the option to put it online.
So we went right there to do it. I think we were the only play rehearsing in London or the country at the time. We live-streamed it for seven nights and reached about 1400 people a night across the world. And it was £10 a ticket. What was extraordinary about that is we got your nose, it was a silent performance.
So the actors acted and then there was no applause nothing at the end. But social media went mad afterwards. And with nice things, not horrible things and that was I thought, gosh, this is accessible. I got tweets and all sorts from Africa, Australia, and America. It's much cheaper. That was a £10 ticket, which would normally be in the theatre about £40, so it was a quarter of the price.
And then you put into that your cost of travel. So it was very reasonable. And if you can't travel, that option is there. So I think that has opened the industry to the possibilities of access without a pandemic and that's a really interesting thing, because before people would follow it's too complicated.
There's no point but when we needed an audience, they were there. They just couldn't come. And I think that was not being undervalued.
Has writing improved during the pandemic?
Lolita: Yeah, definitely no question. I think I've sat at home going there's all this lack of inclusion, the lack of representation down to I mean, you know, all the different types of people in the world but down to women. I think we're half of the population. And there's not enough we couldn't make it that wrong. I think that awareness of needing to include and represent has become very clear and writing.
So what would I say to women?
Lolita: God! If you want to do it, absolutely do it. And let no one tell you you can't. And and and I think often we can I don't know if I'm speaking for myself, we can be our worst our own worst critics. So if somebody makes you feel a bit bad you go oh, maybe I'm rubbish and you go down a tunnel. Don't allow it. Just work to be the best that you can really be. Focus on the work and you focus on what you want. Just take steps to get there. Because impostor syndrome can really engulf us, women, when good things happen to us. We don't believe it most of the time. But also, I think we have to be our biggest cheerleaders.
You can read Part I of this interview on P14 in Asian Voice’s issue dated May 26.
