Front Room Phoenix

Front Room Phoenix is our at-home programme of selected and recommended events to help keep culture alive during lockdown. What We Feel is a new mini-series streaming on YouTube this February. If you enjoyed our previous Come As You Are theatre festivals or Bloom mental health awareness events, we think this will be right up your street. Psst – the series also features Edalia Day, performing as Laura. Edalia Day was due to bring their comedy-cabaret about gender to our stage before lockdown hit. 

Looking for something new to try, then set your reminder for Friday nights this February, as we highly recommend you check out What We Feel, a thoughtful new miniseries created by 1623 theatre company and D & O Productions in lockdown. 

Based on real-life experiences, the four short episodes explores identity and mental health and how collective creativity supports the wellbeing of individuals who face prejudice in their everyday lives. The cast and characters are diverse and represent marginalised communities including Black, Deaf, Disabled, LGBTQ+ and working-class and each actor shares the same protected characteristic as the character that they play. Conceived and directed by Oliver Alvin-Wilson, What We Feel was devised by the cast in workshops and co-created with people living with mental health issues with the full support of a trained counsellor and therapist. 

Dax, Laura, Melvin, Rachel and Vince meet online in a weekly support group with Beryl joining them as sign-language interpreter. This week, Melvin, the group leader has set up an ambitious task for each member – read a bit of a play by Shakespeare and share how it relates to your life right now. Some throw themselves in, others aren’t all that sure. As creativity flows and underlying tensions rise to the surface, will the whole group have chance to express what they feel in a space that feels safe for everyone? 

We really think that this meaningful miniseries is just what we need right now and hope you can join us.

The miniseries is captioned.

What We Feel is a co-production of 1623 theatre company and D&O Productions. Supported by Arts Council England’s Covid-19 Emergency Fund.

How To Watch

A new episode is released every Friday in February at 7pm on YouTube, so you can tune is as they are released or catch up with the episodes after they have aired here >>

Find the mini-series on YouTube here >>