Background
The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) commissioned TOD to co-produce the Covid and Me Monologues in partnership with Leeds University (led by Prof Sue Pavitt) to show how people from underserved communities have been affected by the Covid Pandemic and to underline the importance of COVID-19 research in developing treatments and vaccines for all.
Playwrights Jonathan Hall, Judith Johnson, Sarah Daniels, Farah Najib, Leanne Allen, Oladipo Agboluaje, Sudha Bhuchar participated in a series of Generator workshops that explored the barriers and enablers to involvement in research studies from the perspective of the members of the underserved communities who participated in the workshops.
Illustrator Tony Pickering was commissioned to ‘live capture’ the presentations and discussions that took place in the generator workshops.
Inspired by the lived-in experiences of the participants, and the input of the researchers the playwrights created 10 authentic characters each one from underserved communities.
Each of the 13 monologue explores the character’s experience of living in a world which has been turned upside down by the Covid 19 pandemic, capturing their thoughts and feelings about taking part in Covid 19 research and vaccine trials.
Several of the monologues were translated into languages other than English:
- ‘Tie up your camel’(Asif) Punjabi, Urdu, Bangla
- ‘Why Me’ (Varsha) is available in Punjabi, Urdu/Hindi, Bangla
- ‘Crossing the Line’ (Varsha) is available Punjabi
- ‘Shoulder to Shoulder’ Punjabi
“The Covid and Me monologues are powerful as you feel in a one to one conversation with the actor, as if you are sat across a table and hearing them speak.”
– Dr William van’t Hoff Chief Executive Officer at the NIHR Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre.
All the early creative stages – the generator workshops, auditioning and rehearsals were done online, using zoom. We filmed the first series of monologues at the end of the first lock down and the second series just before the beginning of the second lockdown.
Everyone involved felt that they had a real sense of purpose. We felt that what we were creating, was a way of hitting back at the virus , creating art that would both inform audiences and get them thinking about what they would do, should they find themselves in the same situation as the characters.
These films are fictional pieces of storytelling drama funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The content of each film is an artistic interpretation based on authentic patient voices and therefore, the views expressed are not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care, Leeds University or Theatre of Debate.