Covid five years on: No return to ‘normal’

Back in March 2020, our show Jamboree was on the road touring to specialist schools. It was, of course, promptly shut down.

Immediately, there were practical considerations of the risk posed by Covid – both for our audience of disabled young people and our freelance and staff teams. There was also the question of paying freelancers for the rest of their engagement, which was reasonably straightforward. What was less clear was how we were going to navigate the unknown time ahead.

Focus on the positives

But there was a bigger, existential consideration. what is Sensory Theatre when you can’t interact? How do you engage with audiences when you can’t tour to any of the places you usually perform? 

We considered furlough – but only for a moment. What theatre always offers is joy, hope and connection – things needed most in challenging times. It was clear we had to explore what we could do to support our community – not focus on what we couldn’t.

We could draw on a pool of creative minds to figure this out. With our funders’ support, we could continue to pay them to help us figure this out.

Navigating the pandemic, we found ways to keep connecting with audiences and to keep employing our artists. And those ways continue to influence how we work and do business five years later.

At Home

Since its inception, Oily Cart has been on a mission to reimagine theatre, taking it to ‘impossible’ places. The tight restrictions made us dig deep and get creative.

I remember the conversation with artistic director Ellie Griffiths went something like this: “OK, so we can’t get actors and audiences together, and most of our audience can’t meaningfully access video content. But we can still make theatre for them, right?”

We saw our job as ensuring no one was left out – neither families nor artists. Instead of waiting for a vaccine – or for venues to reopen – we created our Uncancellable Programme exploring new, Covid-safe ways of making theatre and taking sensory shows onto streets and screens, into homes and schools.

We listened to families, particularly those shielding, to find out what they wanted from us. This led to the creation of our first At Home show – sent in the post for families to unpack and experience together. Working with designers, dramaturgs, writers, musicians and more, we created and prototypes with a small group of families (paid for their time). The result was a beautifully crafted piece – Space to Be – that toured to 70 families across the UK. 

Doorstep Jamboree popped up all over London. Photo: Suzi Corker

On tour – digitally

Meanwhile, for disabled and neuro-divergent young people who could engage digitally, we explored sensory film – again for the first time. This gave us the opportunity to work with artists who, due to disabling barriers, already knew what it’s like to be restricted to their homes.

By embracing the restrictions – working fully remotely – we engaged a team of artists to create our Something Love duo of short films. A real highlight was its premiere when our young collaborators, artists, team and families all settled in front our screens – with popcorn – to enjoy this shared moment. 

As the pandemic rolled on, and we kept adapting to ever-changing restrictions and rules, we kept adapting our theatre too. It was clear we wouldn’t be able to tour Jamboree again anytime soon. 

So, we re-imagined the show. The touring Doorstep Jamboree (including a shielding performer, digitally represented) popped up across London – on doorsteps, Zoom screens and in gardens initially and then in school playgrounds as that became an option.

It was a joyful, colourful, musical celebration of resilience: “Just what we all needed during these Covid times”, one audience member said.

Back to business

We even found a way we could tour to schools again. Bursting with colours, textures and sounds, The Cart visited schools containing everything staff and students needed to create their own sensory wonderlands.

There was good news from this period. Feedback from families was overwhelmingly positive. Schools said their staff had regained confidence in their creativity. Funders were hugely supportive and flexible. And artists continued to have work – during the first year of the pandemic, we engaged more freelancers than the year before.

As a company we learnt a lot, captured in our Uncancellable Programme Report – lessons we knew we could and should take into the future.

No sigh of relief

But there was no satisfying end to the pandemic, was there? No point at which we could confidently stop testing every time we sneezed.No point at which we could breathe a sigh of relief and return to ‘normal’. 

Yes, we returned to touring but our new models reached people who wouldn’t have engaged with us before or beyond the pandemic.  We couldn’t abandon them, so we embraced the shift and committed to these new models – At Home shows, more flexible shows, digital and durational work – as part of our core repertoire.  For instance, Sound Symphony (our first tour since 2020) was adapted as Sound Symphony At Home.

We gained recognition for these new ways of working: Sound Symphony At Home was nominated in the Digital Inclusion category of the Digital Impact Awards and Space to Be received the Fantastic for Families Award for Impact and Innovation and was adapted for hospices and palliative care settings for children who often can’t access public venues. 

While we can’t know what the future holds, we do know our artists and audiences are the backbone of our company. And we know that with care, respect and open minds, we can rise to future challenges. Together we can fight for a world where theatre is available and accessible to everyone.